The Immortal Hunter(44)

He was distracted from his less than sterling thoughts by a muttered curse from Dani.

"What is it?" Decker asked, forcing his eyes to her face as she settled back on her haunches.

"My battery," Dani said, feeling her pockets. "It must have fallen out when-" Pausing abruptly, she turned sharp eyes on him. "Who undressed me?"

"Sam and Leigh," he said at once, not bothering to mention that he'd intended to do it himself, but they'd shooed him away and taken over the task.

"Hmm," Dani muttered, not looking as if she believed him. Then she was suddenly off, launching to her feet and rushing off the bed to scamper to the door.

Decker watched her race out of the room and then glanced down at himself with a small sigh. The sheet had tented below his waist again as he'd watched her bottom dance before his face. On the one hand, it was nice to know he could get erections repeatedly like this after eighty years without even a spark of interest in that area. On the other hand, it seemed a terrible shame that they were going to waste. Sighing again, Decker tossed the sheets aside and stood up to don his jeans and go after her.

Dani scanned the floor around the mattress, but didn't see the battery anywhere. She had resorted to crawling around on the bed, checking under the pillows and sheets and blanket when Decker spoke from the door.

"Can't you find it?" he asked. He didn't sound terribly surprised.

Sitting back on her haunches, she shook her head unhappily. "No. I don't know where it could be. I put it in my pocket."

"Maybe it fell out," Decker suggested, avoiding her gaze. "Your phone did."

"Yes, it did," she said slowly, and then stood to move past him into the hall.

"Where are you going?" he asked, following her.

"To check the SUV. Maybe it fell on the floor in there while we were-" Dani cut herself off, aware that she was blushing over what they'd been doing on the floor of the SUV.

"The SUV isn't here."

"What?" She whirled around at that softly spoken announcement. "Why not? Where is it?"

"Mortimer and Sam brought my personal vehicle back, so it was taken back to Argeneau Enterprises. They plan to build a parking garage for them out here, but until they do, they're still kept at the compan-"

"Well, then we'll have to go to Argeneau Enterprises," Dani said, cutting him off. But when she turned to continue toward the stairs, Decker caught her arm to stop her.

"There's no use doing that, Dani. It probably won't be there. One of the other men will be using it to search for Stephanie and the rogue."

She frowned over that possibility and then said, "Well, we'll just have to call Bastien and find out who he gave it to so that we can-"

"Bastien will be sleeping," Decker said at once. "Why don't we just wait until-"

"I'm not waiting. We're waking him up," Dani snapped, and then shook her head with bewilderment at the resistance she was meeting. "Jesus, Decker, my sister is-"

"I know," he said soothingly, trying to calm her... and probably quiet her down, she realized, noting the way his eyes slid to the doors in the hallway.

Dani didn't want to wake everyone up, just Bastien, if it meant she might get a lead on her sister, so turned and led the way up the hall to the stairs. She jogged swiftly down them, and then continued on into the kitchen before turning to face him. But as Dani opened her mouth to speak, it occurred to her that they didn't have to wake anyone up.

"We don't have to wake Bastien," she announced, and Decker immediately relaxed, his relief obvious. Until she added, "We'll just take your vehicle and go to town and buy a replacement battery."

Decker closed his eyes and shook his head. "Dani, Nicholas isn't going to call you. He-"

"You don't know that," she protested, her voice rising with frustration, and then she asked, "Why are you trying to stop me? And why didn't you wake me up last night? Or was I even really in a natural sleep? Did you have Justin control me and keep me asleep on purpose?"

The guilt on his face was answer enough, and Dani felt rage and frustration explode within her.

"You bastard," she yelled, grabbing the cordless telephone-the absolutely only thing there was in the kitchen to grab-and swinging it back to throw it at him. That was when Dani learned how quickly immortals could move. Suddenly Decker was there in front of her, grabbing her by both wrists. He squeezed the one that held the phone until she dropped it and then gave her a little shake.

"Listen to me," he snapped. "Nicholas isn't the hero you think he is. Fifty years ago he killed a woman."

"What the hell's going on down here?"

Both of them froze and jerked their heads to the door as Lucian barked that question.

Decker released Dani and stepped away. "I'm sorry. Did we wake you?"

"Hell no... you woke up the whole house," Lucian growled, and stepped into the room to allow two other men to join them.

Dani bit her lip as she watched them enter. She recognized Justin, but had no idea who the second man was, though she thought it might be Mortimer. It didn't matter, though; she was sorry they'd woken them with their argument.

"Now," Lucian growled, "Tell me what is happening."