Checkmate (19 page)

He sat at the computer and pulled up a list of the latest patients seen by Missy. In times of heavy traffic, people were seen based on the severity of the injury. Fortunately today wasn’t one of those times. They were fairly quiet so it wasn’t hard to find out the name of prego.

He memorized the name then thumbed through the overhead cabinet, faking the need for a Band-Aid to throw Missy off track. Caressing his shoulder with the long fingernails of one hand, Missy smiled at him and reached over his head to grab the box.

“Let me get those for you, Alex.” Her breasts rubbed against his upper arm and she licked her lips with the provocative tip of her tongue.

He loved the way she said his name. Alex turned into her and mouthed one of her hard-tipped nipples, leaving a wet ring on her turquoise shirt.

Fuck. He’d have her bent over the desk here in a minute. He stood with an abrupt motion, making Missy shriek in surprise.

“Later, angel,” he breathed in her ear. She squirmed beneath his towering figure and winked as he walked away.

“Tieran Graham. Tieran Graham,” Alex chanted under his breath. Paper-pushing would have to wait until he rid his ER of Nicole. He fisted his hands together, popping the knuckles of one hand, then the other.

Flinging the door to the stairs open, he jogged up three flights to a less-used wing of the hospital where he knew there was a vacant doctor’s lounge. Alex shed his lab coat and hung it in one of the empty lockers there. Babies weren’t born quickly so he had a little time. He stopped at the vending machines, fed them some change and gobbled down a package of stale crackers and a soda while he thought about the best way to proceed.

He would have liked to have more time to formulate a dramatic plan but didn’t want her to disappear on him again. What if she didn’t stay? What if someone came to relieve her so she could go back into hiding?

Damn. Alex crumpled the plastic wrapper and stuffed it in an empty trashcan next to the door. He didn’t have time to track her and hunt her down. He’d have to do it here and now.

Taking the stairs two at a time, he launched himself to the fourth floor. A glance out the small window showed the immediate area was clear. He stepped into the corridor.

To his right, the elevators dinged their arrival. The doors opened with a swoosh and two people disembarked. A woman, who promptly turned left down the long hallway lined with private birthing rooms. And a man, who paused and looked both ways with his hands on his hips before his gaze fell on then flicked over Alex. For a second, his heart pounded. It was the bodyguard.

Son of an ever-loving bitch!

Chapter Sixteen

What a goddamn clusterfuck. Eli’s incisors sharpened to deadly points, his finger joints popped and tried to shift. Again. He fisted his hands and shoved them in his pockets. He’d been fighting off his wolf for more than thirty minutes now. Ever since he’d received Nikki’s message telling him where she and Tieran were headed. How many hospitals were in this area? Could he delude himself into thinking the man they were looking for wasn’t at this one? Who the fuck was he kidding? The asshole had laid in wait, watched them until they’d left, then tried to kill Nikki. He was here. Somewhere.

Which meant he had to get his mate out of here now. Even though Derek provided a certain amount of protection, Eli couldn’t help but think it would never be as much as Eli or Caelan with their extra abilities. And Caelan would be a little too preoccupied with Tieran to be of much assistance if something happened. Hell, the killer had gotten around having all three of them with her one time, he sure as shit could do it again.

The door to the room he’d been pointed to at the nurse’s station stood open and he heard Nikki-Raine murmuring something. Her words and tone were soft, lyrical, and if he wasn’t so damn mad, scared—fuck was he scared—he might enjoy listening to it instead of her normal stubborn-ass mouth.

“I’ll kill him, Nikki, I swear. He’s a dead man. You’re a dead man, do you hear me, Caelan?” Tieran’s pained voice wobbled as she screamed.

Eli almost laughed. Almost. Then he remembered the reason he was standing here in the first place.

He stepped just inside the doorway, his heart slowing at the sight of his mate. Nikki was safe. For the moment. When he got his hands on her later tonight, he couldn’t promise anything. A low growl reverberated in his chest and both women jerked their gazes his way.

Shit. Eli spread his feet apart and lifted his arms in the air. Nikki-Raine catapulted herself into them, wrapping her legs around his hips and bear hugging him with everything she had.

The action melted his anger a tiny fraction. He kissed her cheek, her eyebrows, her lips. Anything to taste her, make sure she really was still with him and not dead or kidnapped by some sadistic bastard. She shifted in his arms, letting him take all of her weight, and grasped his face with her hands. Her mouth met his in a hungry kiss, melding their tongues together.

If she thought to distract him, she was doing a damn fine job of it.

Eli wrestled his face away from her. Ha. Her chest heaved against his, which would have been good except his did the same against hers. She knew how to push every button in the book, the little snot. Holding onto her with one arm, he used the other to push her head out of the way so he could peer over her shoulder at his sister-in-law.

“You okay, Tieran?” Besides the fact she had hair matted all over her forehead and was sweating bullets.

“Mmm. ’S getting better.” Tieran pinched her lips together and winced. Her hand reached for her belly and clutched at the blue flowered gown that barely covered her. At some point she’d kicked off the covers. Her toes curled with her obvious pain and Eli’s head swam. He remembered exactly what it felt like to be in so much pain. Well, not that kind of pain, but the intensity for sure.

Shaking off the feeling and the memories of his time handcuffed to a hospital bed, he glanced around the room. When he didn’t immediately see Derek, a low growl reverberated through his chest.

“Where is he?”

“Who?” Nikki asked, a questioning look on her face.

“What do you mean, who?” Eli couldn’t help but shout.

“Shh,” she hissed. “I thought he was with you.”

“I swear to God, Nikki-Raine, you’re pushing your luck.”

She slapped him on the chest. “I’m not pushing anything. You were with Caelan, why didn’t you bring him?”

He contained the urge to strangle her, barely. Only the fact she clearly looked confused kept him from wrapping his hands around her throat. “I’m not talking about him, Nik, he’s on his way. I’m talking about Derek, who you said over the phone you would call. I don’t see him, where is he?”

A strong wave of unsettled fear emanated off his mate and wafted across his nose. Good. She damn well needed to be scared. He wasn’t about to be the only one.

“Umm, he’s not here yet.” She slowly untangled herself from his body and dropped to the floor.

“What did you say?” Eli couldn’t keep the snarl out of his voice.

Nikki-Raine cleared her throat. “I said, he’s not here, Eli. What the hell did you want us to do? Wait for him? Tieran’s having a baby as you can clearly see.”

Patience did not show itself. Not with the information Morales had given him. It didn’t matter she hadn’t been told yet. He took a semi-calming breath to clear his head. “There are things you don’t know yet, Nikki.” He grabbed both her shoulders, knowing he might very well tear her apart when she was just starting to feel safe.

“What things?” she asked, squinting in confusion.

Fuck. He hated this feeling of helplessness. Until they knew more about who they were looking for, he was helpless.

“Not here. We need to get out of here first.”

“Eli,” she hissed. “Your sister-in-law is about to have a baby. We can’t just leave her here alone.”

“Watch me.” He grabbed her hand and started to drag her.

She resisted, making him turn back to her. He wanted to howl, to show everyone in this godforsaken hospital how pissed he was.

Nikki bit her lip. Her anxious eyes darted every which way but at him. “Tell me what things you’re talking about.”

“Damn it, you are one stubborn woman.” He too glanced around, but saw no one.

“Morales called. They let the boyfriend go.”

She gasped and sank her fingernails into his forearms. Her face drained of all color. “No,” she whispered.

“Yes. And they’ve found the leak in their department.”

She shook her head wildly. Eli drew her into a hug.

“They’re trying to find out where the killer called him from,” he murmured, rubbing a hand up and down her back and kissing the top of her head.

“Oh, God.” Her forehead rolled back and forth on his chest and her shoulders tensed beneath his hands. “There’s something I need to tell you.”

Why did she sound so ominous? His body rumbled in response. “What?” Damn. He rubbed a hand over his face. Yelling at her wasn’t doing anyone a bit of good.

Nikki yanked her head back in shock. “Stop growling, you ass, before you disturb Tieran.” She grabbed his arm this time and pulled him further into the hall.

“I’m sorry,” he murmured when they stopped. He brought her fingers to his mouth and rubbed his lips across her shaky knuckles. Her pulse hammered at her wrist and he could smell the urgent stench of fear. Leaning back, Eli turned her face up to his with a finger beneath her chin and searched her eyes. Something had happened. “What’s wrong?”

Nikki pulled out of his grasp and twisted her fingers together in front of her belly. “I…nothing,” she said, dropping her chin to her chest.

Warning bells clanged in his head. “Nikki-Raine.”

She shrugged, infuriating him with her casualness.

“I don’t know. When we first got here I…got an uneasy feeling, that’s all. Maybe just from being here too many times with the accident and then the shooting. And then the other shooting. I tried not to think about it too much since he’d been caught, but…” Nikki trailed off.

Eli finished her line of thinking. But now they knew the real killer was still out there.

She shivered and he brought her close again. If she’d felt strange about something, he believed her. Shifters used their sixth senses all the time, why shouldn’t she?

“Oops, sorry.”

Eli turned at the sound of his brother barreling down the hallway and nearly taking out a nurse. His twin righted the poor woman without slowing down and almost toppled him and Nikki. Eli couldn’t contain his laugh, dispelling the tense situation, and steadied the red-faced father-to-be.

“A little anxious there, Cael?”

“More than you know,” Caelan huffed, pale-faced and breathless. He pounded Eli on the back.

Caelan turned and grasped Nikki’s shoulders, then leaned in to kiss her soundly on the cheek. “Thank you for bringing her in.”

Eli growled. “You’ve got a mate already.”

Caelan, the bastard, paid no attention to Eli again. Who did he think he was? Prime or no Prime, twin or not, Caelan didn’t need to be touching
his
mate. “Go touch your own woman,” Eli snarled, tucking Nikki-Raine more firmly into his side.

Again, no response. From either one of them.

“Thank you for putting your life in danger to help me. Tieran, I mean. You’ll never know how much that means to me.” His eyes glittered even in the not-so-great lights of the hallway.

“You just told me,” Nikki-Raine replied sweetly.

Where the hell was that tone when she spoke to him?

“Besides, I didn’t have much choice. Birthing babies isn’t my thing,” she muttered, turning to glare at Eli.

“No you didn’t have a choice,” Caelan said. “But we’ll talk about that later. And since I figure Eli’s already filled you in on the killer, you two need to get out of here.”

“We will,” Eli replied. “Keep an eye on your own backs, huh?”

Caelan nodded. “I’ve got a couple of the guys coming out just in case. I have a feeling I won’t be able to do much.”

Caelan turned and marched proudly into the room. But not before Eli witnessed the green tinge to his skin.

“Let’s go,” Eli growled, taking her elbow and pushing her toward the elevators.

“Wait.”

Eli’s arm was jerked almost out of his socket when she stopped abruptly. Because he hadn’t let go of her arm he was jerked around to face her. He didn’t like the look on her face.

Chapter Seventeen

Eli lifted her face to his with the crook of his finger. “What’s going on, Nikki?” His thumb rubbed lazily along her bottom lip, making her tummy quiver. Her nostrils flared. They were in the middle of a crisis and she wanted him.

Payback could be a bitch. Maybe she could even use it to her advantage because right now, anything that took his mind off questioning her was a good thing. She didn’t want to talk about how she’d felt down in that ER earlier. Especially not in light of the fact this Josh wasn’t who the police thought he was. So what had she seen when they’d first gotten here?

Nikki tried to smile. Tried to make him think nothing was wrong by giving him a wicked look. Eli grunted.

“Fuck. Stop looking at me like that,” he groaned, and shifted his stance to adjust himself in his jeans.

Who was she kidding? She couldn’t seduce. Not now anyway. It was a nervous reaction in a tense situation.

“Hey,” he said, stroking his thumb over her cheek. His mouth descended on hers, lips caressing, soft. Sensitive.

For a second anyway. He angled her head and sealed their lips, drinking from her like a dehydrated man on his fifth day in the desert with no water.

No matter how wrong this was, she couldn’t help the moan that slipped out, or the way her hands lifted to his chest. The T-shirt stood in her way, keeping her from what she really wanted—the taut muscles of his bare chest. She loved the feel of his skin under hers, loved to feel him jump whenever she touched a particularly sensitive spot.

Eli jerked back and stood on unsteady feet. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, then wiggled a finger at her.

“You little witch. You’re trying to distract me.”

What the hell? She hadn’t done a damn thing. Okay, she had, but he didn’t need to know that. “Excuse me, but
you
attacked
me
.”