Checkmate (20 page)

He snorted. “Attacked? I hardly think kissing you is attacking you, and you wanted it.”

“You wanted it,” Nikki mocked, turning the tables on him.

“I’ll always fucking want you.”

Nikki sighed. Back to the growling yet again. “That’s not my problem.”

Except it was, because she wanted him just as much as he wanted her. That stupid mate-link thing, she guessed.

“Talk.”

“Ugh. When we first got here, we were in the ER and had to wait for someone to come and get Tieran. I got this…tingly feeling and the hair stood up on the back of my neck. But when I looked around, I didn’t see anybody other than two doctors.”

Eli nodded and waved at her to continue when she paused.

“That’s all. It happened again when they walked by, but when they passed, so did the feeling.”

The strangest look came over his face. Did his face seem paler? What was going on?

“Did you recognize either of them?” he asked.

Nikki shrugged. “The one never lifted his head up. He had dark hair, but…” She ground the heels of her hands into her eye sockets and sucked in a breath. “God. I don’t know. The other one was only about twenty.”

“So you think a twenty-year-old can’t do the sort of things you saw.”

She shook her head. “How the hell should I know?”

Eli sighed. “It doesn’t matter. Maybe your subconscious recognized him somehow. All the more reason for us to get the hell out of here.” He reached for her hand, ready to pull her along after him.

She resisted again, shaking her head. “I can’t, Eli.”

“What the hell do you mean, you can’t?” His eyelids lowered into menacing slits.

“What if this is my chance to find out who killed my friends?”

“This is insane,” he barked. “No way.”

“Please,” she begged softly.

Eli stomped his foot and threaded his fingers through his hair. “It’s too dangerous.”

“You’re here, we’re in a crowded hospital. We can stand back out of the way and watch.” She laid a hand on his arm. “Please.”

He threw his head back. For a second there, she thought he might howl. She wasn’t too far off. When he looked at her again, his eyes glowed. His lip curled back, revealing lengthened, razor-sharp canines. Nikki sucked in a breath. She’d seen him in wolf form but never this…in-between form. His body twitched as if he were trying to contain the wolf inside him.

“I need to do this, Eli.” She wrapped her arms around his middle and hugged him to her. His chest vibrated with a low growl.

He sighed and returned her embrace, nuzzling his chin on the top of her head. “You think you can pick the same guys out again?”

Nikki’s heart thumped. She moved her hands lower and fisted his shirt. Her fingertips brushed something hard at the small of his back. His hand met hers and lifted them higher.

“My gun, sweetheart,” he said in her ear so no one would hear him.

She nodded. She knew he carried one.

“You didn’t answer my question.”

“I honestly don’t know, Eli. I only saw the top of his head. If you want a description it was dark brown and round. So was the killer’s. So is half the population’s.”

“Fine. Let’s get this over with and go home.”

“Thank you. I know you don’t want to.” She glanced up at him, knowing there were unshed tears in her eyes.

“You’re right. I think I should get you out of here. I don’t want anyone taking another potshot at you. But I can also see how much you want to do this.”

She could have corrected him. Should have. There was no
want
involved here. She
needed
to do this. For Lou and Kelly and Amy.

Eli tugged her down the hallway and stood waiting at the elevator with his hand on the small of her back. His gaze constantly searched the area.

The elevator doors opened with a ding and Eli pushed Nikki-Raine inside. The compartment was empty. Once the doors shut with a swoosh, he guided her to a side wall. With one hand holding her firmly in place, he reached out to the control panel and pressed the Lobby button. As the car began its descent, Eli skimmed Nikki’s cheekbone with his thumb in a tender caress. He pressed his forehead to hers, closed his eyes and sighed. He would never get enough of her smell. So sweet, so sexy.

So why in the hell was he letting her do this?

Leaning closer, he murmured against her lips. “God, I love you.” Her body dissolved with the slightest of kisses. “I don’t know what I would have done if something had happened to you today. Promise me you won’t take a chance like this again,” he growled, barely containing his canines from lengthening.

And I promise never to let you get into this kind of situation again.

“Have any more pregnant women on the ranch you plan on leaving helpless?” she teased, reaching up and lacing her fingers together at the back of his neck.

His cock leapt to attention. Didn’t matter they were in a seriously ugly situation, he wanted her.

“No.” Eli took control of her mouth in a possessive kiss. He swept his tongue past her lips, tasting and consuming her until everything else faded away.

She broke the kiss, coming up for air and breathing as heavily as he was. “What were we talking about?”

“You, never leaving the ranch again.” He squeezed her in a tight hug until she squeaked. Bending for another kiss, he barely comprehended the lurch of the car when it came to a stop at the lobby. The bell dinged and the doors opened. Passengers piled in. They had to fight their way off through the crowd.

Once outside he whipped around, keeping Nikki-Raine pressed between him and the wall. His mate’s life had been threatened enough. This would end here, today.

Knowing she was as scared as him, Eli reached back and took hold of her hand. It trembled in his. If he could kick his own ass, he would. He shouldn’t be allowing this. He should throw her over his shoulder and storm out to the car where he could drive her away from all this. Except they’d still be trapped in this mess. He yanked his cell phone from his belt clip and called the detective. He needed to know what they were about to do. He felt her rest her forehead between his shoulder blades and heard a small sigh. Her fingers alternately opened and closed on his back. Morales’ voice mail picked up and Eli left a message telling him the circumstances and where they were.

In a few minutes this would all be over and he could take her home. To bed where he could make love to her until she forgot about being scared if even for an hour.

Nikki held her breath. Her stomach tightened into knots. Sweat trickled down her back and gathered on her upper lip. Her palm felt slimy against his shirt.

He must have sensed her stress because he turned to face her. Rubbing both her arms up and down helped ward off the sudden chill and goose bumps overtaking the sweat.

“Damn, Nik. If you don’t want to do this, we don’t have to.” His thumb lifted her chin until she looked into his eyes. “Did you hear me?”

She hesitated. They did have to do it. She didn’t want to live in fear anymore. It was time to take back her life. To face her future. One complete with a hairy shape-shifting werewolf and his wacky family. She inhaled deeply and nodded.

“Is that a yes for you don’t want to do this, or a yes, you do?”

“I do,” she whispered.

Screw this. What would being a pansy-assed little girl get her? Nothing but more time at the ranch jail. Nikki threw her shoulders back and held her chin high. “I do.”

“That’s my girl.” Eli’s ragged smile was insincere, she knew.
He
clearly didn’t want to do this. Eli placed a sweet kiss on her lips and mustered the determination to drag her through the ER.

The amount of activity had greatly increased since they’d first arrived. Several of the curtained areas had patients, and nurses and doctors were swarming the space.

How in the hell was she supposed to spot the brown-haired, round-headed someone in all this commotion? “There’s too many people here, Eli. Too many brown heads,” she said, pulling on his hand. Her heart pounded. The air seemed too thin. Dizziness threatened to take over and her knees wobbled.

“Try, Nikki-Raine, that’s all we can do for now. I want to catch this guy so we can get on with our lives without having to look over our shoulders. Besides, we aren’t counting on your recognition of his hair color, we’re acting on your gut feelings.” He kissed her again.

The smooth, soft touch settled her nerves.

“I’m not Tieran, E. I don’t have psychic abilities.”

“Thank God.” He laughed. “I couldn’t handle it if you were.” Eli gave a mock shiver. “It’s kind of scary what she can do.”

“And turning into a wolf isn’t scary at all?”

“Yeah, but—”

“But nothing, E. It’s over-the-top creepy.”

Eli growled low in his throat. Nikki smiled. She loved riling him. The truth of the matter was he didn’t scare her in his wolf form. He gave her a little push at the small of her back and they moved again.

A flourish of activity near the ambulance bay doors distracted them. A team of doctors and nurses approached from behind just as the double doors sprung apart. Paramedics pushed through and suddenly Eli and Nikki were sucked into the pack of converging personnel. Police officers and firefighters filed in also, adding to the confusion.

Feeling crushed, Nikki panicked. She was forced to let go of Eli’s hand or have her arm ripped off. Another ambulance arrived and with it, more people. The sound of shouting doctors and stomping feet along with the regular cacophony of an excited crowd made her ears ring.

“Eli,” she shouted, standing on her tiptoes to try and locate him. She stumbled when someone bumped into her, pushing her into an IV stand. Her ankle twisted sharply. She yelped as it gave out, making her fall to the ground. “Shit.” Nikki pressed her lips together and tried to hold back the burn of tears in her eyes. Her ankle throbbed. A shoe came dangerously close to stepping on the fingers she had outstretched on the floor for support.

Looking up did no good. There were too many people. Damn. “Eli,” she yelled again. No one even looked in her direction. Why would they look at a person sitting on the floor in a hospital? Did they think this was the only spot she could find to sit? If she stayed here long enough, Eli would eventually make his way back to her. She shivered at the thought.

When the mass finally thinned a bit, she attempted to stand. Her ankle protested with an angry flare of pain shooting up her leg. A hard arm clamped around her waist and drew her up into a steely chest. She sighed and relaxed into it, feeling the vibration of his chest against her back.

“’Bout time,” she sighed. How long had she been sitting there? Surely just a couple of minutes. Her heart’s pounding slowly started to fade into a more normal rhythm. She allowed herself to be pulled…dragged, more like it, away from the throng. In moments she found herself in a dark space looking out into the bright hallway.

“I didn’t think we were ever going to get out of that,” she breathed, reaching for a light switch on the wall. The door swung shut, blocking out every speck of light, leaving her blind. Sucking in a sharp breath, Nikki blinked, trying to adjust to the blackness.

Something brushed her shoulder and she heard the distinct click of a lock being thrown into place.

Her senses went into hyper-alert. Every smell and sound intensified. Every smell…oh, Jesus. Nikki threw herself against the door but before she could raise her arm to bang on it, her wrist was caught in a punishing grip and a sweaty palm covered her mouth. She barely had enough space to breathe through her nose.

Chapter Eighteen

“It was so nice of you to come to me.” The stench of sour coffee washed over her. “And to think, I’d been led to believe I’d already gotten rid of you.” The fingertips of his free hand slid over her cheek and across the bridge of her nose, only to return to tangle in her hair. She gagged behind his hand, her eyes tearing.

Nikki squirmed in the bruising hold he had around her neck, prying at his hand with her fingers until he subdued her. He yanked her arms to her sides and crushed her to his chest. She whimpered. Her nose ran, making breathing even more difficult.

“Where have you been hiding, my pretty?” He chuckled, his body swaying with hers as if he were dancing. Her feet shuffled on the floor. “The cops actually pulled one over on me. Hats off to them. It won’t happen again.” His voice feathered along her ear in an eerie whisper.

“Still got the bodyguard, huh?” he asked, his voice rising. “Don’t leave home without him?” He laughed as if he’d made a joke.

Nikki’s heart slammed inside her so hard it hurt. Her nostrils flared with each attempt to draw air, and still the whimper sounded. She squeezed her eyes closed and prayed the door would burst open and Eli would storm in. He could smell her, right? He’d find her soon.

But would it be soon enough?

The man laid his cheek on her head and hummed, still swaying, and clutched her tighter. His erect penis ground into the small of her back. Something in her snapped. Tieran’s vision popped into her head. This was it. The dark room, the fear.

She would not be a victim again.

Nikki scrambled to think. To forget about everything except Eli and getting the hell out of here.

What should she do? Play the innocent? Keep him talking? Give Eli time to find her. She could do this.

“Wha new oo wan?”

“You make any move to scream and I’ll slit your throat before it ever comes out, understand?”

She nodded once.

“What were you saying?” He released her mouth just enough so she could speak, but ready to cover it immediately after.

“What do you want?” Nikki caught her breath. “Who are you?” Please God let this work.

“Don’t play dumb with me, bitch. You know exactly who I am.” His angry hiss reverberated through the dark. “You aren’t going to ruin my game. If I had known you were still alive, I’d have done something sooner, had a nice scenario planned. Now I have to wing it.” He grasped her neck with bruising fingers and Nikki flinched.

How much time had gone by? They weren’t that far away. Where was Eli?
Please, hurry, E.
The man moved behind her.