Werewolf Wedding(35)

The world went black once, and then a second time. I fought, kicking and screaming, to keep myself in the here and now, but I couldn’t do it, whatever it was that invaded my studio, and my lungs, had a hell of a grip on me.

The last time I tried to scream, the only word I could manage to cry was Jake as the world faded once again, into a fuzzy, thick, mud-like blackness that matched the feeling inside my brain.

My body went cold, my fingers and toes rigidly stiff.

I felt the throb of a motorcycle’s engine against my belly, but then my nerves went black, just like my blinded eyes. Touch, smell, taste, it all faded into a brown-black malaise.

*

I opened my eyes God knows how long later, and the only thing I could think was that I really hoped there was nothing wrong with my epoxy, because that stuff represented the very last of the petty cash fund.

The sun coming through the thrown back drapes – very nice, thick, velvety ones that were the same color as a distant mountaintop – was so bright that initially I thought it must be a flashlight from a helicopter. I squinted at it, shuffled my feet and immediately fell straight onto my face, barely catching myself on my hands in the super-thick carpeting.

“Shackles,” I heard Jeannie say from across the room. “Welcome to the 1920s. Also, I retract my statement about trying to hook me up with Jake’s brother. I’m plenty into possessive and growly, but kidnapping is a little over the line.”

My head was still wobbly from whatever had knocked me out, but I was cognizant enough to connect a few simple dots. “He drugged us?”

“Drugged you,” she said. “Me he just sorta put a bag over my head and threw me over his shoulder. I gotta admit, you know how to find ‘em, Dilly.”

Somehow, Jeannie was smirking.

“What the hell are you smiling about?” I snapped, not really meaning to, but scared and panicking just a little. “We got kidnapped!”

She was shaking her head. I know she laughs and jokes as a defense mechanism, but sweet Christmas. “I was just thinking,” she said. “This is perfect. This is exactly perfect. The thing is, if I have to be kidnapped, I’m just glad I’m with you. Otherwise I’d be a nervous wreck right now. And also, I’m pretty glad that the person who kidnapped us is the rival of a billionaire heart-throb. It gives me some hope.”

I just stared at her, mouth slightly agape, and joined in the head shaking. “I mean, I guess you have a point,” I said. “And another good part is that we know where we are.”

“We do?”

“Yeah,” I said, “when Jake had me over the other night, I remember walking past this study. I don’t remember the thing looking like it could be locked down quite so securely from outside, but I remember it. Wait, that also means that...”

I went for my phone, which of course wasn’t in my pocket where it had been. Not even Dane was that stupid or brash.

“He said we could use the one on the table over there,” Jeannie said.

I looked at her quizzically.

“Oh. Dane. That’s his name, right?” she asked. “He took our phones and put the shackles on us, but said we could use the phone on the table. I’m not sure if it’s some kind of dominance posturing,” she trailed off for a moment. “Actually yeah, having been around him for more than thirty seconds, I’m relatively certain that this is one hundred percent, testosterone-laden alpha male posturing. Is Jake like this?”

“I might be an idiot,” I said, “but even I wouldn’t fall for this sort of thing. A guy who goes to this length to seem awesome must have a dick the size of a gherkin.”

Jeannie snorted a laugh. “Well your fiancé did commission a statue of himself. And he does drive a fairly massive bike.”

“Right, but it isn’t loud. There are different levels of posturing. I think Jake’s is in the ‘lovably confident’ category and not the ‘comical douchebag’ one.”

Looking thoughtful for a moment, Jeannie nodded in agreement. “And he doesn’t have a faux-hawk. That’s something.”

We sat there for a second, both looking from each other’s face to the window, and then around the room. Slowly, the reality of what was going on sunk in. My mind started racing, and I wished for a little bit of whatever had been in that epoxy, just to keep me from getting quite so intense.

Beads of sweat were all over my forehead and my upper lip. It could have been my body reacting to the drug, but it was also the first reasonable reaction I’d had since waking up and worrying about fixing a statue’s arm. I chanced a glance in Jeannie’s direction to find her chewing on the corner of her top lip, her tell.

“We’re going to be fine,” I said, feeling like I needed to do something to comfort her. She didn’t show emotion very often, but I knew deep down she felt things way more than most other people. I knew it, of course, because I did too. “Jake is... this is his house. The guy who drove me here, Barney, he must be around somewhere. And anyway, Dane doesn’t want to kill me—kill us. He wants to take me before Jake can.”

Jeannie furrowed her brow. “What, you’re some pawn in a weird mating game? Hasn’t that struck you as a little demeaning?”

I thought about it for a second and then admitted that, no, it hadn’t. “Made me feel sort of special to be honest.”