Into the Lair (Falcon Mercenary Group #2)(20)

She glanced over her shoulder at Ian, who was unconscious, and then back to Braden.

“I’ll tell you what you want to know if you answer all my questions. All. But I won’t do it until he’s awake,” she said, jerking her thumb in Ian’s direction. “I want to hear what both of you have to say, and I want to look you in the eye while you’re talking.”

“Fair enough,” Braden said with a shrug. “Why don’t you get some rest. I promise not to try and kill you while you sleep.”

She slouched down in her seat, weariness seeping into her bones. She wanted rest, needed it. If she didn’t refuel, she was going to crash and burn.

“Will you be okay to drive?” she asked and immediately cursed the fact that she sounded concerned.

He cracked a half-smile. “Go to sleep, Katie. I’ll be fine.”

Chapter Ten

Ian dragged himself from the remnants of a drugged sleep. Dark images assaulted him, pulling at him. Memories of the hunt. The overwhelming urge to claim what was his.

Katie.

He put a hand to his throbbing head and shook the cobwebs free. He was losing his grip on sanity. Katie wasn’t his, and moreover he didn’t want her to be.

Slowly he sat up and blinked to bring his surroundings into focus.

“You feeling any better?” Braden asked from the driver’s seat.

Ian leaned forward to stare out the windshield. The eastern sky was lightening as the first rays of sunlight eased over the horizon.

Then he looked over to see Katie scooted over as far against the door as she could go. She was curled into a tiny ball, her hands in a defensive position, and her eyes were tightly closed.

She slept, but even in sleep she was tense and rigid.

“Ian?”

He turned to his brother. “I’m good. I think.”

Braden’s troubled gaze found Ian in the rearview mirror. “That was a bad one, Ian. What the f**k happened?”

Ian rubbed the back of his neck and closed his eyes for a moment. “It’s her. I can’t explain it. There’s something about her that sets me off. Been that way since the beginning.”

Braden sighed. “Yeah, I know. Me too.”

“Where are we?” Ian asked as he studied the roadway.

“Almost to Durango.”

“Pull over. I’ll drive. You need to get some sleep.”

Braden rolled one shoulder and worked his head from side to side. “I thought we’d snag a room just long enough to grab showers and touch base with Eli.”

Braden glanced over at Katie and said in a quieter voice, “She’s wiped, and she needs to eat. The bandages came off when she ran, and she needs tending to.”

Despite his irritation with her, Ian softened a little when his gaze swept over Katie’s huddled form.

“Okay, but we need to make it quick.”

Braden nodded.

Thirty minutes later, they pulled into a roadside hotel. Braden hopped out and looked back at Ian. “Will you be okay with her?”

Ian swallowed the retort and motioned for Braden to go. As his brother walked away, Ian stared down at Katie who hadn’t stirred.

What was it about her that got him so fired up? He wasn’t unused to the instability or the sudden urge to shift, but this was different. Something dark and feral came over him. A drive inside him that had nothing to do with danger or risk.

He wanted her. Badly. It pissed him off to no end. How could his body, his beast, want something so badly when his mind was screaming hell no? And why was Braden similarly affected?

Unable to stand the confines of the truck, he eased the door open, careful not to make too much noise. He stepped into the early morning coolness and breathed deep of the cleansing air. He took several gulps before he gently shut the door and walked a few steps toward the front of the truck where he could still see Katie through the windshield.

Would he have hurt her? It was hard to say. He couldn’t trust the jaguar because he retained no memories of being the beast. He only knew the overwhelming desire to possess her, to mark her, to make her his, that swamped him just prior to his shift.

The best thing would be to stay as far away from her as he could, but that wasn’t exactly a possibility when he and Braden would be spending every waking minute with her until Esteban made his move.

As he watched, she came awake. There was no slow build to awareness. No sleepy stretch or lazy yawn. She bolted forward, her eyes wide, and he could see the tension billowing off her in waves.

Her gaze connected with his, and for a moment, he saw relief. That surprised him because she’d made no bones about the fact she didn’t trust him or Braden one iota. No sooner had he reflected on the apparent relief in her expression, her eyes hardened as she stared back at him through the glass.

With a sigh, he sauntered around to her door.

“Why are we stopped?” she asked as soon as he swung it open.

“Braden is getting us a room so we can shower, and then we’ve got phone calls to make and we—you—need to eat.”

She wiped a hand over her face, drawing his attention to the still-vivid bruising on her cheek and on her slender neck.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

It took him a minute to realize he was scowling.

“Nothing,” he muttered. But anger he couldn’t quite control quivered and snaked through his veins, whispering to him and calling to the predator.