Angel/Hiss (Bayou Heat Box Set Book 7) (3 page)

Indy leaned against the rough brick wall of the building, trying to remember how to breathe.

She tried to tell herself that it was fear that was making her heart pound and her palms sweat. She was, after all, creeping through the dark, intent on capturing a lethal male who could kill her without a thought.

But she couldn’t lie. Not even to herself.

The sensations jolting through her had nothing to do with fear, and everything to do with shocked fascination.

Good. God.

When she’d trailed the Pantera to his office yesterday it had been from a distance and she’d never actually seen his face.

Tonight, however, she’d arrived at dusk and picked out an emergency exit door that provided a place to hide as well as a full view of the parking lot. Two hours later, Dr. Savary had strolled around the corner of the building with a blond-haired woman clinging to his arm.

Despite the dark, Indy had easily been able to make out the man’s exquisitely carved features. The wide brow, the narrow blade of a nose, the high, chiseled cheekbones and the sculpted curve of his lips. His white-gold hair contrasted sharply with dark eyes set beneath thick brows, and the rich bronze of his skin.

She’d never seen such a beautiful male and for a second she found herself dazzled, unable to believe he could be real.

It wasn’t until he came to a halt at the edge of the parking lot that she managed to regain control of her sizzling hormones.

Okay, he was gorgeous. And for the first time in her life she was consumed with the need to rip off a man’s clothes and lick him from head to toe.

But she couldn’t afford to be distracted.

Not when Willa’s life hung in the balance.

Hidden in the shadows, she watched as the woman leaned forward, pressing her impressive boobs against the doctor’s chest.

“You’re sure that you can’t join me for dinner?” she purred. “My lasagna is good enough to make grown men cry.”

Indy nearly gagged. Was that how a normal woman tried to convince a man to have sex with her?

Yeesh.

“Tempting,” the man murmured.

The blond giggled. “What could I offer to make it more tempting?”

His hand lifted to cup her cheek. “Elan, look at me.”

She obediently tilted back her head. “Mmm?”

“You will forget about our evening tonight,” he ordered in soft tones. “You worked late. Alone.”

Indy pressed a hand over her mouth as she watched the blank expression descend on the woman’s pretty face. She’d heard about the Pantera ability to mess with humans’ minds, but she’d never seen it in action.

“Alone,” the blond repeated.

The doctor turned her toward the parking lot, giving her a gentle push.

“Go home, female.”

“Yes,” she agreed in wooden tones, walking toward a nearby BMW. “Home.”

Dr. Savary remained at the edge of the lot as the woman started her car and drove away. Then he turned, as if he was about to re-enter the hospital. Indy hastily stepped forward. This was her best, and potentially only opportunity to capture the man.

First, however, she had to get close enough to strike.

“Nice trick,” she drawled, stepping from the doorway.

He stilled, watching her with the eyes of a predator as she strolled forward.

Heat prickled over her skin despite her leather coat, and her hand instinctively tightened on the dart gun she had hidden in her pocket.

“It’s not nice to spy on people,” he said on a low growl.

She forced a smile to her lips, trying to ignore the strange awareness racing through her body. It was almost as if there was an electrical current racing between them, zapping her with bolts of excitement.

“It’s not nice to screw with their minds either.”

His nose flared as he caught her scent, his muscles clenching as he studied her in wary confusion.

“Who are you?”

She shrugged, not surprised by his puzzlement. He had to be sensing she wasn’t just another harmless human.

Which meant she had only a few seconds left before he decided to figure out exactly what she was.

“Indy,” she said, trying to look small and harmless as she took a few more steps forward.

“Just Indy?”

She unconsciously licked her lips. His voice was a low, slow drawl, like melted molasses.

“Just Indy,” she rasped.

His gaze darted around the parking lot, his instincts clearly warning him something was wrong.

“Hasn’t anyone told you that it’s dangerous for a young girl to be out on her own?”

“Are you asking if I’m alone?”

The dark, mesmerizing gaze returned to her pale face. “I was expressing my concern—” His words were cut off as she abruptly jerked her hand from the jacket and aimed the dart gun at the center of his chest. A second later she’d pulled the trigger and he glanced down in shock. “Shit,” he breathed.

He managed to take a step backward before he was swaying to the side. Just for a minute he glared at her with stark incredulity, then, with a low groan, he toppled to the hard pavement.

Indy rushed forward, regret twisting her heart.

She knew the malachite she’d shot into his body would cause agonizing pain.

“I really am sorry about this,” she muttered, hooking her hands beneath his shoulders and dragging him the short distance to her truck that was parked in a loading dock.

Not for the first time she thanked whatever god might be listening that she was far stronger than a normal woman as she wrestled the unconscious doctor into the back of the truck. Angel might look sleek and lean, but he weighed a freaking ton.

Wiping the sweat from her brow, she glanced around to make sure she hadn’t been spotted. When no alarms went off, she climbed into the cab of the vehicle that Tarin had stolen from The Haymore Center and shoved it into gear.

Less than half an hour later she was back at the school and Tarin and Caleb had carried Dr. Savary into the locker room where Karen had set up the cage.

Still on edge, Indy had ordered the boys to go back outside to make sure she hadn’t been followed. Not that Tarin would thank her for thinking of him as a boy, she wryly acknowledged. He’d just turned twenty years old and considered himself very much a man.

Crouching beside the cage, she silently studied her prisoner as Karen entered the dilapidated room that’d been stripped bare of everything but a few rusty lockers and an empty shower stall.

“Good god…” the woman breathed, giving a disbelieving shake of her head. “He’s magnificent.”

Indy rolled her eyes. The man was clearly lethal to poor women.

“Karen,” she muttered.

“What?” She gave a helpless shrug. “I’m just saying.”

“He’s a shifter.”

“So what? We’re…” The woman gave a vague wave of her hand. “Whatever the hell we are.”

“True.”

Karen leaned forward, her brow furrowed. “Shouldn’t he be awake by now?”

Indy chewed her bottom lip, her gaze locked on the sculpted bronze features that looked disturbingly lifeless.

“I don’t know.”

“Oh Indy, I hope you didn’t truly harm him,” Karen breathed, her kind heart unable to bear the thought of anyone being hurt.

“So do I,” Indy muttered, pretending to be a true hard-ass even as her gaze was locked on the man sprawled across the cement floor. “There’s no way I’ll be able to find another Pantera doctor.”

Karen sucked in a shocked breath at her callous words. “Indy.”

She turned her head to meet her friend’s chiding glance, her tension easing as she sensed the Pantera’s heartbeat quicken as he started to regain consciousness.

“It’s okay, Karen,” she soothed the woman. “I stole the darts from our captors’ little shop of horrors. The bastards were ruthless, but they wouldn’t risk killing their test subjects. The Pantera were too hard to get their hands on.”

Karen grimaced. “I hope you’re right.”

Indy reached to give her friend’s hand a comforting squeeze.

“Why don’t you make something to eat?” she asked, knowing Karen would feel better if she felt like she was doing something to help. And, of course, it would get Karen out of the room when Dr. Savary fully wakened and condemned them to hell. An inevitable fate that was oddly depressing. “He’s going to be hungry when he does wake up.”

“Okay.” Karen studied her, clearly aware that Indy was trying to get rid of her. “Don’t do anything foolish.”

Indy watched her friend reluctantly walk out of the locker room, her mouth dry as the air abruptly warmed with the power of the man’s frustration.

He might be lying unmoving on the floor, but she could hear the increase in his heartbeat and feel the prickle of energy that told her the creature inside him was alert and dangerously pissed off.

“I know you’re awake,” she said, relieved when her voice came steady.

There was a brief pause, as if the man was considering his options. Then, clearly realizing he was temporarily trapped, he opened his eyes and shoved himself into a sitting position.

He was pale and a lingering pain was etched onto his elegant features, but his beauty was still breathtaking. Helplessly her gaze skimmed over his hair that shimmered with a pure white-gold beneath the overhead lights and his eyes that studied her with an intense intelligence.

“Congratulations, Indy,” he growled, the air vibrating with his barely leashed fury. “It’s not often I underestimate the enemy.”

She flinched at the mocking derision in his voice before she was tilting her chin to a determined angle.

“I’m not your enemy.”

His short, ugly laugh echoed through the air. “You shot me with a malachite dart and locked me in a cage.” He glanced around the depressingly shabby room with its peeling paint and broken window covered by some weird-ass chicken wire. “Trust me, honey, we’re enemies.”

It shouldn’t matter what he thought of her. He was a means to an end. Nothing more than a tool to save Willa.

But suddenly she realized it did matter.

A lot.

“Let me explain.”

He leaned against the cot that Karen had placed in the cage, folding his arms over his chest as he stretched out his legs.

“Do I have a choice?”

She slowly rose to her feet. Even though he was caged, the Pantera managed to command the room with the sheer force of his presence.

“What do you know about Stanton Locke?”

He hissed, a low growl rumbling in his chest. “You work for him?”

“Hell no,” she denied, her voice harsh. “I was a prisoner in one of the labs he owns.”

He tensed, clearly caught off guard by her sharp response. Then…he studied her. Really studied her. Perhaps for the first time.

Something dark and dangerous flared through his eyes, an enticing musk scenting the air before he gave an abrupt shake of his head.

“You’re not Pantera.”

Her lips twisted at the accusation in his voice. Did he assume that no one but the Pantera had suffered at the hands of Locke and his cronies?

“No. I’m human.” She shrugged. “Or at least I was until my mother sold me to Benson Enterprises.”

He did another long, disturbingly intense survey of her, sweeping down her taut body before he met her guarded gaze.

“Benson?” he finally demanded and Indy released the breath she hadn’t even known she was holding.

She hated trying to explain how any mother could willingly sell her only child to a monster.

“They’re a research lab based in New York,” she explained.

“It’s owned by Locke?”

Indy didn’t have to ask the male’s opinion of Stanton Locke. The very air sizzled with the force of his seething hatred.

“His name is on the dummy corporation that runs it,” she qualified. At the beginning she’d devoted every waking thought to how she could destroy Locke for what he’d done to her and dozens of others. But over the years, she’d uncovered enough evidence to make her realize that Locke was just the tip of the iceberg. “Although I suspect he’s nothing more than a flunky for a man, or men, who prefer to hide in the shadows.”

His expression was unreadable as he considered her words, but Indy didn’t need to be a mind reader to know he remained deeply suspicious of her.

Not to mention…pissed as hell.

Not that she blamed him. But she had to find some way to convince him she had no choice. How else could she plead for him to help Willa?

“While you were at the lab did you see any Pantera being held there?” he abruptly demanded.

“Yes. They were being held in the secret tunnels built beneath the labs,” she revealed, a tiny shiver racing through her body at the memory of their agonized cries that echoed through the vents. “The rats were kept a floor above them. I could hear them sometimes. At night.”

His brows snapped together. “Rats?”

“The humans, like me, who were kept for experimentation.”

***

Angel pressed his hands against the cold cement floor, struggling to remain upright. Fucking malachite. Even though it had burned out of his bloodstream, it still left him feeling weak and dangerously vulnerable.

Even worse, his cat was restless and distracted, prowling beneath his skin as it urged him to break through the bars and reach the female who’d taken him captive.

A reasonable response, if the damned thing was anticipating the taste of her blood. Or the sensation of his claws ripping through her flesh.

She’d tricked him, darted him with a toxic brew of malachite, imprisoned him, and admitted that she knew their enemy, even if she claimed she was as much a victim as the Pantera.

He should be foaming at the mouth to destroy the bitch.

Instead the animal inside him was far more intent on getting a better sniff of her enticing scent of wildflowers. And licking that creamy smooth skin to see if it was truly as soft as it looked. And getting her pinned beneath him so he could sink into her heat…

Shit.

With an effort he leashed his beast, trying to clear his foggy mind. Later he would worry about his reaction to the tiny, dark-haired female.

For now, he needed to uncover her true connection to Stanton Locke. Maybe she was the victim she claimed to be, or maybe this was just another trap set by their enemies.