His Purrfect Mate (13 page)

“Assignment complete,” Bobbi informed him. “Mission accomplished.” Reggi
e beamed with pride, dancing with glee where he stood.

Fury swelled inside
Jax and his vision went red with rage. He took a deep breath, ready to let out a mighty howl of anger, but Pixie snorted in contempt and flopped down on the bed.

“
After what you pulled, you’re about to act all pissy with us? Don’t even,” Pixie drawled.

“Exactly,” Bobbi said. “Do not EVER try to trick me like that again, or next time the consequences will be much, much worse.  You want to be my partner?
Accept me as your equal. I’m every bit as capable as you are in these situations. I worked for the National Enforcer’s Council for five years, you’ve seen me in action.”

“Yeah,
dumbshit,” Pixie added, un-helpfully.

Jax
clenched his fists and had to draw in and let out several long, slow breaths before he was able to control himself.  He was furious at them, but he reluctantly had to admit that he would have been equally as angry with Bobbi if she’d tried to leave him behind and gone on a dangerous mission by herself.

And he also knew he had no choice. He had to take Bobbi as she was, if he wanted to be with her.

Since he couldn’t imagine life without her, that meant he had to take her as she was.

“I assume that the Prince’s parents
still have no idea that he’s here?” Jax asked Bobbi.

“
Yes. I checked with Tyler.  So far, mum’s the word.”

“Good, because heads are going to roll if they find out,”
Jax grumbled.

Reggie gasped in horror. Suddenly, his eyes filled with tears.

“That was a figure of speech,” Jax said quickly.

“No it isn’t!” Reggie wailed. “You’re right. If they find out that I’m here, the
y will execute everyone who was watching me. They will execute my nanny. I only have her for a little while more, anyway, and now they’re going to kill her. They will. This is all my fault. I must go back!”

“They’re not going to execute her,”
Bobbi said quickly. “They’ll never find out.”

Reggie was near hysteria now. “I want to go home! I want to go home!”

“Damn it, Reggie! Get ahold of yourself!” Bobbi snapped. “You should have thought about this before you climbed into that suitcase! We are in a war zone. There is no safe way for us to get out of here until the plane comes.  It’s like a shooting gallery out there.  Our taxi caught a couple of hundred bullets the other day when we were out for a casual drive.”

“What?”
Jax yelled. He swung towards Bobbi. “Is that true?”

“I don’t care!” Reggie wailed. “I must go home! I must save my nanny! This is
all my fault!”

“
The plane isn’t coming for several more days,” Bobbi said. “There’s nothing we can do to get out of here faster.”

“I will pay for a new plane!”

“To get to the plane, we would have to drive through bandit territory. You would be kidnapped, and either killed and held for ransom. If that happens, your nanny and security team most certainly would be executed. The only safe thing to do is stay here and wait until the plane comes.”

Reggie curled up in a ball and cried so hard his whole body shook. Pixie sat down
cross-legged on the floor next to him. “You want me to show you how to pick a lock?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, thank you,” he sniffled into his knees.

“Why do you only have your nanny for a little while more?” Bobbi asked.

“My mother has a rule. Each nan
ny has to leave after one year,” he mumbled at the floor.

“That’s a stupid rule,” Pixie said.

“I wish this one could stay with me,” he said miserably.  “But it’s mother’s rule. There’s nothing to be done.”

“Hmmm.
Never say never,” Bobbi said. “When I set my mind to something, I can be quite resourceful.”

Jax
grabbed his satellite phone which was sitting on top of the dresser.

“I’ll c
all Tyler and remind him how urgent it is that we keep the prince’s little escapade quiet,” he said.

Reggie ignored him, bent over in sorrow, crying noisily into his knees.

“Jonathan Drake. We have a problem.” Kenneth snarled into the phone, his claws extending from his hands. Rage ripped through his body, and he could feel his face lengthening, his fangs descending.  He’d never felt such raw fury, or such fear.

For Chloe’s sake, he forced
the fear deep, deep down inside, and struggled not to let his rage overwhelm him.

Jonathan was th
e owner of Hammersmith Security, and if he didn’t give Kenneth exactly what he wanted, he was also a dead man walking. 

“How did you get this number?” he demanded. Kenneth had called him on his private cell phone, and even better, Kenneth happened to know that Jonathan was at his mistress’s house.
Jonathan had inherited Hammersmith Security from his wife’s father.

“I have my sources.  I ne
ed to know the whereabouts of your employee, Alfonse Capitano. Now.  He abducted a woman named Chloe Novak.  She happens to be my fated mate. Think about that for a minute.”

Kenneth could hear silence and heavy breathing on the other end of the phone.  Jonathan was human, but he would be familiar with the concept of a fated mate. Heaven help the person who got in between fated mates…especially if one of those fated mates was Kenneth Chamberlin.

“What makes you think that my employee had anything to do with-”

“Don’t play cagey with me, motherfucker. Don’t even try.  Chloe disappeared.  My men and I questioned people who saw her getting in a car with a man who fits Alfonse’s description. He’s been following her, and har
assing her. Employees of yours have also been following my people in Turak.”

“Perhaps she got in the car with him voluntarily?” Jonathan’s voice quavered as he spoke.

“No. I happen to know otherwise.  And don’t keep wasting my time.” Kenneth glanced at the note which had been delivered to him by messenger. It was in Chloe’s handwriting, but it had several spelling and punctuation errors. Chloe would never, ever have made those errors, even at gunpoint.   It was clearly the only way that she could send him a message that she was writing the note under duress.

“
Well, I can’t help you find him, I’m afraid.  Alfonse has gone, ah, kind of, off the grid,” Jonathan said reluctantly.

“
“How in the hell did that happen?”

“He flew to Italy
to continue his surveillance of Chloe Novak, and then…vanished. His cell phone has been turned off.  He isn’t responding to emails or text messages.”

“But he’s been following her. Why?”

Jonathan’s voice came out in a nasal whine. “You must understand, that’s confidential client”-

Kenneth fel
t his rage flow through him like a hot tide of lava, boiling through his veins and threatening to choke him.  Chloe had been taken from him by force. He had no idea where in the world she was, or what was being done to her, if she was suffering, if she was frightened…His face lengthened, his mouth filled with fangs, and fur rippled over his skin.

With enormous effort, he forced himself to
return to human form. He had to stay human long enough to find Chloe, no matter how hard it was.  His primal instincts rumbled under the surface, and all that he wanted to do was shift and find someone to maul.

“If anything happens to Chloe, I will
hold you personally responsible,” he snarled. “And I will personally rip your throat out.”

“Are you threatening me?” Jonathan’s voice
rose an entire octave.

“Are you a complete fucking moron? Of course I’m threatening you.  There’s no security force in the world that will stop me.
  If Chloe is harmed in any way, you will spend the rest of your very short life looking over your shoulder and waiting for me to find you, which I will.    You sent a man to follow Chloe, and then that man kidnapped her.  You caused this to happen, and therefore, you will answer every question that I answer, immediately, or I will make sure that you drown in your own blood.”

There was a brief pause, and then Jonathan said, in an aggrieved voice, “What do you want to know?”

“Who hired you to follow Chloe? Who hired you to follow my people in Turak? And why?”

“You must understand
, this client originally just wanted us to follow your people and get information about that Sumerian artwork that your grandfather stole. Then they started making additional requests, offering my people a huge amount of money if they would kidnap Chloe and your employees.  All of my people said no – except for Alfonse, apparently.”

“And you never felt the need to warn me of this?”

“It would have violated client confidentiality.  It’s very important that word never get out that I revealed-”

“Answer the fucking question!
Who is your client? This is your last chance before I go Defcon five on your ass,” Kenneth’s voice shook with rage and ended in a snarl.

“Well, it’s actually rather odd…” Jonathan said, and then he told him.

Kenneth sank back into his chair, stunned.

That made no sense. No sense at
all.

* * *

Chloe woke gradually, with a dull throbbing in her temples. Where was she? The last thing she remembered…oh, no. 

She sat bolt upright and looked around
.  The room wobbled several times and then settled down.

Slowly, carefully, she climbed off the bed. She was still wearing the clothes she’
d had on when she was kidnapped, even her shoes.

The
room had no windows, and when she tried the doorknob, it was locked.

Her purse and cell phone had been taken from her.  Even if Ken
neth had figured out what she’d tried to tell him with the note, how would he find her?

In the distance, she could hear
the air cracking with scattered gunfire.

I must be in
Turak, she thought. 

She’d been here before,
in fact, six years earlier, when the region was stable.  Everyone she’d met had been so kind and so fascinated to meet an American and she’d taken part in an archeological dig of an ancient city-state that dated back to 3500 B.C. She’d written her thesis on it, in fact.  She’d never wanted to leave.

Now she felt homesick and
alone and very frightened. She also was angry enough to kill.

Concentrate on being angry, she told herself. 
Someone had taken her from her fated mate. Someone had threatened her family.  It didn’t matter if she was a small, clumsy, shifter who was terribly outnumbered, she wouldn’t go down without a fight. 

A quick search of the room revealed that there was a small bathroom, the closet was empty, and her purse was
definitely gone.  Of course, there was no telephone. The doorknob rattled, and then the door swung open.  Two large bear shifters stood in the hall outside the doorway, in human form. They were the size of football linebackers, and their expressions were not friendly.  “Come with us,” one of them intoned.

There was no po
int in resisting – not yet, anyway.

I am so in over my head, she thought despairingly, following them down a hallway.

She was lead through several hallways, into a living room. The furniture was American style, but dated, with ugly black lacquer and fake gold accents. 

Chloe could smell death in the air. 
Rotting flesh, spilled blood.  She sniffed, and realized that it was coming from down yet another hallway.

A woman sat at a table, wearing a
black dress and a hat with a thick, dark veil draped over her face.

“Chloe,” the woman said, in a low, strange voice.
Her grandmother’s voice. And yet…there was something off about it. She hadn’t seen her grandmother since she was a small child, and that was only for a very brief meeting. She’d only ever heard her grandmother speak over the telephone. In person, her grandmother sounded as if she were deliberately altering her voice.

“You came,” her grandmother said.

“What is wrong with your voice? Someone’s dead in this house, I can smell it! Where is my mother?” If her mother was dead, so help her and everyone in this house…

“
It’s the people who owned this house! These animals killed them!” her grandmother wailed. Her voice sounded wrong – too young. Was this an imposter? Was that why she was wearing a veil?  “Tell these men everything they ask of you. Please. If you don’t, they’ll kill us all.”

One
of the bear shifters turned towards Chloe. “Have you found out where the other statues are?” he demanded, his voice heavy with menace.

“
Show me my mother!” Her voice was rising with hysteria.

“
You don’t get to make demands,” the man said, and slapped her grandmother on the side of the head so hard that her grandmother rocked sideways in her chair, wailing and cringing.

The man raised his hand to slap her grandmother again.

Anger swelled inside her and pushed aside the fear.

Furious, Chloe leaped to her feet. “I don’t give a damn if you’re bears,” she snapped. “I will shift, and you can see what happens when you corner a cat.  Don’t touch my grandmother
again, and bring my mother out here, or I swear to God I’ll claw your faces off, or die trying! And then you won’t get any information from me at all.”

The man glanced at her grandmother…as if he was waiting for a cue from her. As if she was in charge.

And why the hell was her face veiled?

“Chloe, please, just tell them what they want! Can’t you see they’ll kill me?” her grandmother whimpered, cringing away from the man.

Pretending to cringe.

A terrible suspicion
started to swell inside Chloe.

“Why don’t you want them to bring my mother out here?” she demanded.

“She’s fine!” her grandmother wailed. “Please, Chloe! Please answer their questions!”

Before they could stop her, Chloe shifted, leaped forward, and pawed the veil off her grandmother’s face…and fell back in shock.

This couldn’t be her grandmother. It looked exactly like the picture that her mother had of her grandmother as a young woman. This woman was impossibly young. She should be in her seventies, but she looked like she was in her twenties.  Her heart shaped face was smooth and unlined, and her wavy hair was a lustrous chocolate brown. She looked a great deal like Chloe and her mother.

Chloe turned human again, clutching at her shredded cl
othes.   The bodyguards had shifted into bears, and they loomed over her, growling, eyes blazing, but she was too stunned to be frightened.

“Who the hell are you?” Chloe gasped. “What are you?”

Impatiently, the woman pushed her chair back, standing up.

“Oh, the hell with it,” she snarled
at the bear shifters. “She’s not buying it. Bring in my darling daughter.”

They both shifted back into human form, and turned to walk out of the room. “And put some clothes on!” the woman yelled after them as they walked out.

The men vanished down the hallway, as Chloe stared at the woman, open-mouthed.

“That’s one hell of a plastic surgeon you’ve got there,” she said finally.

The woman looked at her and her eyes glowed red. “You have no idea,” she smiled unpleasantly.

A minute later,
one of the men, now wearing slacks and no shirt, was marching Chloe’s mother down the hallway.

“Mom!
Are you all right? What happened?”

Her mother looked dazed. Her
face was pale, her hair was a tangled bird’s nest and her blue blouse was torn at the shoulder.

She glanced at
Sophronia despairingly.

“
Oh, no. They got you, too, “ Hilary moaned. “That woman isn’t my mother.  I don’t think she’s been my mother for a very long time.”

Chloe stared at the woman
, and a terrible understanding came to her. “You’re a demon,” she said. “Or at least, you’re possessed by one.  You were possessed by a demon way back when Barrett and you found those statues. That’s why you suddenly started acting so different after you brought the statues back here. That would explain why you never aged. Why wasn’t Barrett possessed, too?”

“I ask the questions here,” the
demon-Sophronia said.

Hilary
collapsed into the chair next to the table.

“I know
why,” Chloe said. “I
know
.  The inscription on the statues – it said not to bleed on the statues. You accidentally cut yourself and bled on one of the statues, didn’t you?”

Demon-
Sophronia made a bored slow clapping motion. “Aren’t you the clever one.  The body that I now occupy – yes, it cut itself on a nail and bled on one of the statues when it was unpacking them. It set me free.”

“Why are you trying to get all the statues together?”

“Enough of this,” the demon snarled. “What have you found out? And don’t lie to me, or I’ll cut this woman’s throat.”