Priceless (22 page)

He barked out.
“
Yuppy doody.
”

A dark eyebrow lift
ed
in my direction. I shrugged.
“
He
’
s got a weird lingo. You
’
ll get used to it.
”

The former FBI agent snorted.
“
This is not a permanent
arrangement
.
”

It was m
y turn to snort.
“
Really? And who else is going to believe that your bullet went fucking about on
its
own trajectory to kill your partner? Who else is going to believe that you have a spell on you that has messed with your emotions, ability to think clear
ly,
not to mention your ability to control yourself?
”

He blanched and sat down on the edge of his bed.

I shook my head.
“
I won
’
t be long. Don
’
t move and don
’
t kill Alex, because that would seriously piss me off,
and right now
I am your only friend
in this whole messed up world
.
”

Slamming the door behind me, I trotted to the stairs. Damn, this was getting complicated.

17

With Adamson gone, O
’
Shea finally let himself relax, or at least take a breath. His mind was full of things he should not be thinking about. The feel of her skin, the flush in her cheeks, the curve of her ass under his hand. What was wrong with him? Ever since the . . . incident at the farmhouse
,
he couldn
’
t get her out of his head, couldn
’
t stop the thoughts of her naked and writhing below him
—
maybe didn
’
t want to.
He
’
d been crawling across the bed toward her
. Was
this what that blue and green stuff they
’
d shot at him was doing?
That
spell
? He
scoffed at the idea and then his
thoughts
swung back to Adamson.

In an attempt to take
his mind
, and better yet the mind between his legs,
off her
and
to gain back some control, he flicked on the TV. And there he was in full living colour, a wanted man, armed and dangerous
,
charged with gunning down his own partner and possibly kidnapping one Rylee Adamson.

“
Ah crap
,
”
he
muttered, turning the TV up slightly, the clear voice of the female news anchor making his ears buzz. All he could see was that as beautiful as she was, there was no comparison to his girl.

Everything around him froze. His girl?

Sweat bead
ed
on his forehead as he tried desperately to make sense of what was happening to him. Bullets swerving, magic spells and werewolves
?
I
t sound
ed
like
a
bad joke a
t
a
geek convention.

He la
y
back on the bed and closed his eyes. Adamson thought she had a cure for what ailed him. A part of him hoped she did
.
T
he other very vocal part wanted nothing to do with any sort of a cure. For the first time in his life, passion overrul
ed
his better senses and
,
though logically he knew it, surprisingly it wasn
’
t bothering him as much as it should have.

Eyes closed
,
he could see her clear as day, smiling up at him
; he
tasted her lips under his, watched those amazing eyes light up just for him.

“
I am in so much trouble
,
”
he
said softly.

From the bathroom came an unexpected reply from Alex.
“
You
’
s in trouble.
”

Yes, when even a werewolf could see you were sinking fast, it had to be bad.

*-*-*-*

Lugging three grocery bags back up to the room, I stumbled when the door opened for me.

O
’
Shea had his shirt un-buttoned and his hair was a mess.
“
Alex heard you coming.
”

The werewolf had not listened to me and was even now sitting on the window seat staring out at the traffic below.

“
Alex, stay away from the window
.
”

He slumped and slid to the floor in a comical move that left him half sitting, half resting against the chair. I bit back the smile as I took in his chagrined face.

I
wasn
’
t
surprised
Alex alerted O
’
Shea
.

“
Come on
,
Agent.
L
et
’
s get you into the bath.
”
I held up the plastic bags and jiggled them.
“
Then we
’
ve got to get out of here. If you can find me that easy, the pack won
’
t be far behind
if they
’
re tracking us
, and close behind the pack may be those little
lovelies
who locked me in the cellar and killed your partner
.
”

I started the bath, the scent of wet dog lingering even with the bathroom fan on. Running the water on full hot, I poured six large containers of salt into the tiny tub. Looking over my shoulder
,
I considered the options. There weren
’
t any others. If we were going to break the spell on O
’
Shea
,
he was going to have to cram his overlarg
e frame into the
standard-
sized hotel
bath.
Tight fit was an understatement;
it would be
like jamming a werewolf into a Chihuahua
’
s winter sweater.

“
Come on, in you go.
”
I gestured to the tub
.

A
smile quirked across O
’
Shea
’
s lips. Very slowly, he started to peel out of his clothes.

“
Clothe
s
on big man
,
”
I said.
“
The spell hit those too
,
and since we don
’
t have spare clothes in your size, everything
’
s getting dunked
. The only thing we have to be grateful for is that it seems to have some sort of delay on it
;
otherwise
,
the spell would
’
ve had you in its grip far sooner
.
”

His smile slipped
,
and I wondered at the thoughts whipping through that head of his without his usual control to keep things in line. I had a feeling he was going to be a mighty grouchy man when the spell was taken off him and he remembered how he
’
d been acting toward me.

I laughed out loud at the thought.
“
I mean it, all of you in there.
”
I pointed at the tub
,
which seemed to
be
shrinking by the moment with O
’
Shea standing there beside it.

With some difficulty, he squished into the nearly scalding water, a long hiss erupting out of him.

“
Too hot?
”
I
kept
my face a mask of innocence.

“
No, I like it.
”
Again his eyes roved over me. Buggers, maybe he really did have a thing for me.
Nope, best not to go down that route; too dangerous by far.

“
You need to soak for at least ten minutes, make sure you dunk your head. We
’
ll put your shoes in after
.
”
I stepped out into the main room.

While I waited for O
’
Shea, I started to go through the list of mineshafts Kyle sent me. There were four, as Kyle said, and one was cemented, so that was a no go. Which left only three to consider.
One of those three fell short of the two hundred feet by six inches. But if there was one thing I
’
d learned, it was if a Shaman said two hundred feet or better, they meant it in a very literal sense.

I stared at the last two mineshafts, my gut clenching as the details
be
came clear. One was relatively new, only fifty or so years old
,
and there were ongoing happening
s
around it, including a still active mine
with employees working there on shift 24/7
.

The other was pretty much out in the middle of nowhere
;
the closest town and actual road was over sixty miles away
from it
. Not to mention
—
I flipped the page to make sure I was getting the facts right
—
it was closer to two hundred and fifty feet and was about to be capped as several people had fallen into it over the last few years.
Kyle sent me a newspaper clipping on the last victim of the mineshaft fall.
“
The body was so badly mangled that the coroner repeatedly questioned the rescuers on the location of the body. He stated that it looked like some of the wounds had not been inflicted by the fall itself, but by some other source.
”

Interesting they didn
’
t actually mention
what th
e
other source of wounds might be.

Alex let out a fart and rolled over, his tongue lolling out in a toothy grin.

I opened the window
with a grimace
and
,
as I turned
back to the bed
, a soggy, grumpy agent stormed out of the bathroom.

“
My clothes are ruined
,
”
he
snarled.

“
Ooh, now that was the O
’
Shea I
’
d been missing
,
”
I said, shrugged and continued.
“
Better that than having you strip tease for me and putting the clothes in after.
”

His face slowly turned red and the
veins running up the side of his neck pulsed, but he said nothing.

I smirked and enjoyed the momentary silence. It didn
’
t last long.

“
You said you
’
d explain
everything
,
”
he
said
, his eyes hard and flinty. He was not a happy agent.

Alex jumped up and looked out the window as I started to give O
’
Shea the rundown. Witches, Day
w
alkers, werewolves
,
and Ogres. Just to start. He dried his hair with a towel, which gave it a very, very sexy rumpled look.

Sexy? Who said that? I caught the turn of my thoughts before they could get me into trouble. Damn, but it was sexy. His hair was still damp
,
and the moisture caught the little bit of light coming through the window. He leaned back and ran one
hand through his hair, his bicep flexing under the wet cloth of his
shirt. I
scrambled back, blinking. Maybe I
’
d got some of the spell on me?
Like w
hen he
’
d me pinned up against the wall in the elevator, or thrown
me
over his shoulder.
I was only
“
mostly
”
immune to magic. Some of it could stick. Damn, this was not the time to have my immunity fail me.