Collector's Item (5 page)

Massey raised a hand to touch the back of his head and winced. “Why the hell didn’t you hit her first? I thought you weres had lightning reflexes.”

“If she’d slammed the door shut on us, we’d have lost our best chance to catch her unprepared.” He pulled KT’s Taser out the pocket of his duster. “She had this in that desk drawer there. One zap with this and you’d be useless for hours.”

Massey smirked. “I’ve been tasered before. No biggie.”

Peyton shook his head. “This one’s been amped up for paranormal physiology.”

Massey’s eyes widened and he gave the Taser a more respectful glance. “They make those?”

Peyton snorted. “Course they do.”

Massey stepped closer to KT’s unconscious form and drew back one foot. “Bitch.”

Max leaped forward and drove Peyton to grab Massey’s arm. Peyton swung him around so that his kick never connected. “Hey, mind the merchandise.”

“A man’s got a right to get a little of his own back,” Massey insisted, pulling against Peyton’s grip, but without success.

Peyton shook his head. “I’m bettin’ whoever wants this little princess wants her in good shape.” Peyton looked over his shoulder at KT. “And that one’s in exceptionally good shape.”

Massey jerked his arm and Peyton let him go. “Okay. Point made.” He touched the back of his head gingerly. “What the hell did she hit me with any way?”

Peyton jerked his chin toward the backpack where it leaned against the wall. “Laptop.”

“Damn.” Massey looked around. “Where do you think she keeps the aspirin?” He stopped and looked at Peyton. “Your kind
does
take aspirin, don’t you?”

Peyton ignored the dig and glanced around. “Course we do. We’re human.” He gestured toward the hallway. “Bathroom’s probably back that way. Check the cabinet. I’ll check the kitchen.”

He and KT had cleaned up all signs of their fight. The hand towel he’d used and empty salipen were stuffed in a suitcase in the bottom of her bedroom closet. He headed for the kitchen while Massey headed for the bathroom.

Peyton opened and shut cabinets until Massey shouted out he’d found the aspirin. Peyton opened the refrigerator and peered inside. Bottled water, yogurt, a couple of white Chinese take-out boxes and an assortment of deli meats and cheeses filled the shelves.

He looked at the door and grinned. “Now, that’s what I’m talkin’ about.”

Micro-brew stouts, lagers, and ales glittered in the narrow shelves. He selected a pale ale for Massey and a stout for himself. He flipped the door closed and smiled at the muffled chiming of the bottles.

Who would have guessed a princess like KT would enjoy a good brew? Stephanie and her friends had preferred champagne and fruity high-alcohol concoctions. Many a time, he’d had to haul her, puking and incoherent, from some hoity-toity club. Those were days he didn’t miss.

He carried the two bottles into the living room and set them on the coffee table. The fall of hair across KT’s bruised face shifted ever so slightly with every breath.

What kind of princess uses initials instead of an elegant name like Katarina? Or lets herself be used as bait in a “just crazy enough it might work” kind of plan? Even unconscious on the floor of her apartment, KT Marant continued to surprise him.

The toilet flushed. Massey sauntered back down the hallway, a couple of prescription bottles in his hand. He held them up and rattled them in Peyton’s direction.

“Looks like our little Collector’s Item’s been feeling a little stressed.” As Massey read off the names of the prescription drugs, Peyton winced inwardly.

“Just like a princess, taking a pill instead of just dealin’.” He turned to reach down for Massey’s beer and give himself a moment to think.

If KT’s metabolism was suppressed by prescription drugs, the sedative may be more effective than planned. Of course, if everything went according to plan, it might actually work in his favor. She might not wake up until after the arrest. His impression of KT did not include her sitting by passively during the take-down.

His stomach tightened. Conversely, if things went wrong, then it wouldn’t matter when she woke up, would it?

Max’s snarl of denial matched Peyton’s own feelings.

Peyton wiped all emotion from his face before he turned to hand the beer to Massey. “Well, at least she has good taste in beer.”

Massey grinned, twisted off the cap and took a long swig. He flipped the cap toward the trash basket, but it clattered on the floor far short of target. Unconcerned, he dropped onto the couch and slammed his heels on top of the coffee table.

He gestured toward the flat screen TV. “Find the remote. With her bucks, she’s gotta have everything. May as well get comfortable. Gonna be a long wait ’til midnight.”

Peyton stepped over KT, instead of going around her like he would have preferred. He had to treat her like furniture or Massey’d notice. He fished the remote out of the wicker basket beside the cable box and tossed it to Massey before he crossed to windows. Closing the curtains, he shut out the early twilight.

It
was
going to be a long wait.

Chapter Five

KT drifted on a float in the middle of the pool. Overhead, a twin-engine plane droned low across the sky, a dark silhouette against the high cirrus clouds. Strains of Latin music floated to her from somewhere and the thrum of the plane’s engines rumbled against her skin.

Mighty big engines for a twin prop, she thought, lifting one hand to shade her eyes. Or she tried, but her hands were tied behind her back.

The rumbling resolved itself into the sound of a powerful V-8 while the bite of plastic ties into her wrists drove the last of the dream from her mind. Andi sprang into pure panic mode, until KT remembered what was going on.

We’re okay
. She struggled to control her breathing, and kept her eyelids closed. Thank heavens, the salison dose had worn off. She had missed Andi’s familiar presence.

Though she tried to play it off, the plastic ties had freaked her out more than the injection or the microchip. Peyton had refused to budge.

“They’re standard for Collectors,” he had said, pulling a packet of them from his coat pocket. “Captured weres are too much for humans to handle unrestrained. Even the double dose of sedatives doesn’t always keep us down.”

Rationally, she understood, but instinctively, she hated them. Andi’s vehement second bordered on hysteria. KT chanced a soothing deep breath. The scents of Massey and Peyton drifted to her from the front, mingled with gasoline and exhaust fumes. KT tried to ignore how far the scent of Peyton went to calming Andi.

From the sound of the engine, and the fact that she wasn’t stuffed in a trunk, KT guessed the vehicle was an SUV. In route to the airport? The high hum of the tires could only be highway travel. Seemed things were going according to plan.

Massey’s voice pulled the tension back into her. “Mind if I change the station? This Latin shit is making my headache worse.”

“My car, my music.” Peyton said, though the music did soften. “Besides, if you’d been paying attention, she’d never have gotten the drop on you.”

“How could I pay attention to her with you pounding the hell out of me?”

“Had to make it look good.”

“Well, that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t missed her in the first place.”

“Who stood in the stairwell, instead of pushing harder for an invite in?”

“Shut up.”

Pissing off Massey didn’t seem like a good move to KT. Peyton had better know what he was doing. If they were as close to the airport as he said, he’d portioned that injection a bit too fine for her comfort. As it was, her mind wanted to skitter off into la-la land, and the inside of her mouth felt like a desert.

Andi retreated into the background, a low growling rumble in the recesses of KT’s mind. Calmer, KT could now focus on pretending to be unconscious, taking long, slow breaths.

She had watched Massey for a while to get a feel for how someone breathed when sedated. When they moved him onto her couch, she had taken note of just how limp he felt. It was going to be hard to let her neck and limbs relax enough to pretend to be unconscious.

Massey’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Take this exit.”

The sound of the pavement changed as they completed the turn followed by another long period of driving between stops, for traffic lights she assumed. Then a final wide turn before the vehicle stopped and the engine shut off. With the radio off, she could hear the muffled sound of engines, jet engines. The airport.

Locks clicked and doors opened. The vehicle rocked, and then shuddered when the doors slammed shut. Footsteps moved along both sides of the SUV toward the rear. She controlled her breathing and worked hard to look unconscious.

The back door opened. Fresh air, tainted with exhaust, flowed over her. Andi bristled. Someone was watching them. KT shoved her into the background.

“Good. She’s still out.” The hard tone of satisfaction in Massey’s voice held no trace of the warmth he’d shown in the foyer of her apartment building. “I’ll go ahead and finalize things with Parker and the client. You get her packed up for transport.”

“Right.” Peyton’s voice sounded flat and bored.

Footsteps moved away from the car. Hands gripped her ankles and pulled her toward the bumper.

“He’s gone,” Peyton said, his voice just above a whisper. “Are you with me?”

KT opened her eyes. Peyton stood beneath the lifted rear door. Harsh light coming through the windshield of the truck sharpened the angles of his face and darkened his eyes to black. A shiver slid up her back and her hands flexed against the plastic ties.

Had she made a mistake? Had she allowed Andi’s instinct and her own frustration about Aunt Patricia’s disappearance to override her own reason? Yes, he was Protector-trained, but he
was
working with a Collector. All she had was his word.

He’s Alpha,
Andi insisted.
Trust.

“The team’s here, waiting on my signal.” He leaned over and pulled her closer to the bumper of the SUV, concern mixed with strain in his expression. “You good?”

She took a deep breath and caught the scent of weres; a lot of weres. Her pulse calmed and Andi’s “told you so” huff melted the last of KT’s momentary panic.

“Yep.” She jerked her chin in the direction Massey had gone and strove for a light tone above the pounding of her heartbeat. “Man, he sounded cold. I really thought he and I shared a moment back at the apartment.”

Peyton’s mouth curved in response, softening his face and further soothing her. “Not any more. He really holds that whack with your laptop against you.” His smile flattened out. “I barely managed to keep him from giving you a taste of your own medicine while you were out.”

“I guess we won’t be picking out china patterns,” KT said. She tried not to imagine what might have happened.

Peyton rolled her onto one side. When he bent over her, she noticed, again, his scent of jaguar and male. Andi purred and KT squashed that down hard, again. She wouldn’t fall into that trap again.

Peyton grasped the plastic tie around her wrist. She felt something metallic touch her skin.
Snick
. “I’m going to cut through the ties just enough so you can break them if you need to. But leave them in place until we’ve got things under control in there.”
Snick.
“Now, don’t exert any more pressure on them than you have to and they should hold.”

He rolled her onto her back and helped her up into a sitting position. Taking hold of her shoulders, he bent down to stare into her eyes, his expression stern. “Remember, don’t move until we’ve got them under control.”

KT tensed, uncomfortable beneath the restriction of his hands or the authority of his voice. However, he was the professional. “Right.”

He glared at her. “I’m serious. It could get dicey in there and I, the team doesn’t need any distractions.”

Speaking of distractions, KT found herself way too aware of his hands cupped over her shoulders, fingers splayed over her shoulder blades; his thumbs just brushed her collarbone. The heat of his palms, were-warm, soaked through her shirt and into her skin. Startled, KT took another deep breath, and his scent rushed to her head.

Without thinking, her gaze dropped to his mouth as she relaxed beneath his hands. When his lips tightened, she imagined moving forward to test those lips against hers. Startled, she blinked and looked away, but not before she saw the pulse in his neck quicken to match her own. He let her go and straightened up.

Not wanting to think about what that might mean, she focused on squelching her own reaction. Andi’s behavior aside, KT knew she had better control than this. Ignoring the jag’s amusement, KT reasoned it had to be a leftover effect of the pheromones.

“Sorry. You were saying?” She shook her head and took a hard grip on herself. They had too much going on now without all this—distraction. Another shiver coursed through her, only this one, colder than the first, reminded her again of the dangers ahead. Focused, she looked up to meet his gaze. “Oh. Right. I’ll stay out of the way.”

He had moved enough that his face was in shadow, his expression impossible to read, though the signals she read from his body shared her own sense of confused denial. He took a firm grip on her ankles and dragged her closer until her legs dangled over the bumper. “Okay, now comes the fun part.”