Falke’s Captive (15 page)

She huffed out a breath and said, “Unless you two can get it up again, I suggest you let go of me.”

Reidar snored.

Kelan smacked his lips and nuzzled his face against her hair.

She chuckled to herself and wiggled down the bed, out from under their limbs. Both men flipped over, facing away from each other, and each pulled one of the pillows to their chests. She stood at the end of the bed, watching her boys sleep peacefully in the low ambient light cast through the window from the parking lot. A part of her thought about crawling right back in between them, but she’d wasted an entire day in bed already. She was going to lose her position with Professor Whitmore if she didn’t start working harder and playing less.

After a quick stop in the bathroom, she put on her bathrobe, picked her glasses off the dresser and quietly dragged the little table to the far, dark corner of the room, then booted up her laptop. She pulled her cell phone from her purse and a diet cola from the mini fridge. The cooling box with the blood sample was still there, and she shook her head. She seriously needed to get her act together. The post office opened at nine, and she vowed to be at the door then.

She punched in the code to listen to her voicemail—a call from her mom seeing how things were going—and then laid the phone on the table next to the computer. She always kept the ringer on silent vibrate because she carried it into the forest with her and didn’t want it scaring off potential targets. She should call her mother in the morning. Later in the morning, she amended when she glanced at the clock on her computer.

She took a few swallows from her bottle of cola and then opened her journal, scrolled through what she’d started to write about Falke the night he’d escaped and laid her fingers over the keys.

The cougar escaped sometime during the night
, she’d written.
In the morning, using the GPS tracking device I inserted in his neck, I found him in a store in downtown Leavenworth. The cat is a family pet belonging to the Falkes, locals of Leavenworth and owners of Catamount Outfitters. They treat him as part of the family. I’ve heard them say, several times, that no one
owns
him.

Her gaze strayed to the bed before turning back to the computer screen. She began to type.

The family is protective of the cat and will not allow me access to obtain another blood sample, which we need to continue the testing. The town vet is also a Falke sibling, and she was as tight-lipped about the history of the cat’s lineage as the rest.

I spoke with a few locals who said there has always been a Falke cougar for as long as they can remember, and a few I spoke with are descendants of the original founding fathers of Leavenworth. But how much of what they said is true, and how much is folklore?

There must be records somewhere that can shed light on this unique line of pumas. Perhaps I can find something in the newspaper archives at a local library.

I will continue digging as deeply as I can into the family history with the cougars. My goal is to obtain another blood sample, and to try to trace a family line. At this point, I do not know who sired Falke or its mother’s identity, or even where either parent comes from. I assume one or both are in captivity somewhere, if either is still alive, but the Falke family is very secretive.

I have made friends with two of the brothers. I’m hoping they will eventually open up to me.

Unless she was just a fling. Something they did with a lot of tourist women.

She looked over to where Kelan and Reidar still slept, and her heart ached a little. When she said she thought she could fall in love with them, she’d lied.

She loved them already.

The two brothers together were the perfect man. She smiled at the thought, even as tears stung her eyes. Reidar was so gentle and soft spoken. He could melt her heart with one of his sexy grins. Kelan had that hard, demanding edge that enflamed her libido as nothing ever had. They were both kind. And when she’d spoken of her passion for her work, they’d listened. Even though she wasn’t sure of their formal education, they were intelligent and great conversationalists.

It had only been a matter of days since she met them, but she wasn’t the type of person to lie to herself. She wasn’t a teenager with a crush, and she hadn’t been searching for love everlasting. But it had found her. Or at least love had. She doubted this would be everlasting, and that thought hurt her heart.

Who would have thought it? Bookworm Lizzy in love with two sexy men.

No wonder Tim seemed so shocked. She should be too, she supposed, but it all felt so right when she was with them. Too right. Perfect. As if she belonged between them at all times, loving them both.

“Oh, Beth,” she whispered to herself. “You dumb, dumb girl.” She sighed, saved the journal entry and opened up her notes and dissertation draft.

A while later, her phone buzzed on the table. Beth glanced at the computer’s clock to see it was just after six. Definitely not her mom at this hour. When she picked it up, she saw it was Professor Whitmore and quickly answered, dashing for the bathroom and shutting the door so she didn’t have to whisper.

“Hello?”

“The lab results are missing,” he said, his voice full of fury.

“Wh-what?” She couldn’t have heard right.

“The lab results are gone. Erased from the computer. Someone’s been in the lab. Things are moved around.”

“Are you sure?”

“The files have been erased, and some kind of program was run so it’s irretrievable. It’s gone.”

Beth swallowed hard. How could it be? There were numerous files, one for each test run—she’d done it three times herself, plus whatever Whitmore had done.

“Tell me you saved a copy on your computer,” Whitmore demanded in nearly a growl.

“N-no, sir. I did not.” Why hadn’t she thought of backing up the data onto another drive?

“Did you email the results to anyone?”

“No.” A sickening queasiness churned in her gut.

Whitmore cursed fluidly and colorfully under his breath. “Goddamn it, why didn’t you back up the information?”

Because she was waiting for the lead scientist to look at the results, and since he got them, he’d been sending her on one errand after another. “I—”

“God help you if you—”

“I have that nanny cam,” she rushed to say as she rubbed her fingers over her forehead. “My computer. Tim brought it to me last night. I’ll find out who did this.”

“You do that. And if I find out it was you or Tim—”

“Professor Whitmore!” How could he think such a thing?

“Just call me back. I want the identity of the bastard who did this.”

The line went dead, and Beth leaned heavily against the counter. Why would Tim destroy the test results? Why would he move things around the lab? There were no secrets from him.

Still, the last time she’d seen him, it hadn’t been pleasant. Could he have done it to get back at her?

“Oh, Tim. You didn’t.”

She left the bathroom and realized the sun was coming up, the room lighter now. She went back to her computer, laid her phone on the table, closed down her word processor and moved the cursor over the icon of a movie camera called LabCam.

The program automatically logged her into a remote server and gave her dates broken up by hours.

She’d start with 5:00 a.m. and work backwards.

She fast forwarded through the digital recordings, an hour taking only five minutes at full speed.

At 6:38 p.m. the previous evening, the darkened lab grew light. The door had obviously been opened. She hit the pause button, then play.

What she saw had her eyes widening in shock.

Tim had installed the camera on the wall, in the corner over the computer desk, giving a wide-angled view of the entire lab.

There was no mistaking the two naked men entering the lab through the side door. She’d know those perfect male bodies anywhere. They were lying in her bed right now.

As she watched Reidar go to the computers and Kelan open the sample fridge, her surprise kindled into fury. They’d shown up at her room at seven last night. They’d ransacked her lab then came to her, kissed her, pretended—

She wished the video had sound. She could see them talking and wondered what they were saying. Kelan had opened every drawer and cabinet.

And why the hell were they
naked?
It wasn’t as if they were hairless and didn’t want to leave DNA evidence at the scene of their crime. She was sure the police could recover enough fingerprints to remove all doubt of guilt even without the video evidence.

Kelan seemed agitated, so much so that he punched the wall. Reidar grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the door, but Kelan went back and closed the drawers, the doors, and picked something off the desk he’d left there earlier.

By the time the video went dark with the closing of the side door, Beth shook with rage. Her breathing shallow, she got up from the chair to approach the bed and tripped over a pair of jeans dropped carelessly to the floor.

Kelan’s jeans.

With a fat leather belt.

She picked up the pants and slid the belt out of the loops. Her heart thudded in her chest, and she refused to let the hurt of their betrayal outweigh the anger seething through her veins.

Beth doubled the belt, holding the ends together, and without conscious thought, she brought the looped end down as hard as she could on Kelan’s beautiful bare ass sticking out from beneath the sheet.

“How could you do this to me, you sons of bitches?”

Kelan yelped and rolled off the bed. She didn’t stop. She swung the belt again, grazing Reidar’s arm as he rolled the other way and dove off the bed.

“What the
fuck?
” Kelan shouted.

She swung a third time, but Reidar grabbed her around the waist and tumbled her to the floor. Her glasses fell off, which only made her angrier, and the belt flew out of her hand. So she went at his eyes with her nails, bucking and screaming. “How could you do this? How could you do this
to me?
”

Reidar’s hand clamped over her mouth, and somehow he’d managed to trap her hands in his fist. He outweighed her by at least fifty pounds, and as hard as she struggled she couldn’t dislodge him.

“Stop screaming, sweetheart,” Reidar said in her ear. “Shh. It’s all right. Everything’s okay.”

She screamed against his hand and fought, twisted, tugged at her hands, tried biting his palm but couldn’t, until the tears came. Great, heaving sobs that racked her body.

Reidar pulled his hand away from her mouth and loosened his grip on her hands.

She jerked away and shoved him off of her. Kelan was there, lifting her to her feet. She tried pushing him away, but he wrapped one arm around her waist, the other across her chest, and anchored her against him.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he demanded.

She reached behind her, grabbed his ball sac and squeezed.

“Son of a bitch!” He released her, and she made a dash for the door, but then Reidar had her again, pinned against the wall this time, her hands secured in his big fist behind her back. He didn’t hurt her, though. He seemed to hold her with such ease, making her feel utterly powerless, and she hated it.

“Sweetheart. Settle down. Tell us what’s got you so worked up?”

“How could you?” was all she could choke out between the aching throat and tears.

“How could we what?”

How could you hurt me that way?
she wanted to say, but this wasn’t the time to let them see how much they’d
hurt
her. Fury over their betrayal, yes. Hurt…
Fuck it.
The tears gave that away.

“Let me go,” she said in a low voice, “and I’ll show you what you did.”

Slowly, Reidar released her and stepped back, but he blocked her path to the exit. She turned around and glared at him. The asshole had the audacity to look so innocent, even concerned. He should be concerned. He was going to jail!

She straightened her robe, retrieved her glasses and swiped her sleeve over her face to dry her tears before putting them back on. Then she stomped across the room to her computer, barely sparing Kelan a glance to see him sitting on the bed cradling his balls.
I hope they never work again. Should have twisted them off.

She rewound the video to the 6:38 p.m. time stamp and then turned the laptop to face the men.

As soon as the video lightened, Reidar sank down on the bed next to his brother. “Beth…”

“Don’t bother,” she snarled.

“We can explain,” Kelan said.

“Like I said, don’t bother.” She reached for the room’s telephone sitting next to the television on the low dresser. “You can explain it to the police.”

Kelan came off the bed faster than a guy with crushed balls should be able to move and yanked the phone from her hand. She spun around and grabbed her cell off the table.

Reidar snatched it away before she could get the nine dialed. “We can’t let you call the police.”

Fear spiraled through her at his hard tone. Reidar was the nice one. If he’d turned…She swallowed hard and tried to back toward the door. They weren’t going to
let
her? What were they going to
do
to her?

Reidar bent down and picked up his jeans, pulled them on. She stepped toward the exit.

Kelan was the one to stop her by wrapping his hand around her right wrist. “Stop.”

“Fuck you!” She tried yanking way, but even though his grip felt light, it was unbreakable. “Let go! If you don’t I’ll scream until the entire hotel shows up here. I’ll get the cops here one way or another.”

Kelan looked calm. Too calm. And then he said, “There’s a very good reason we broke into the lab. Will you please let us explain?”

“Why should I?”

“Because you want to know about Falke.” That made her pause until he added, “You’re going to have to trust us.”

“Trust you? Are you
insane
? You went from there—” she pointed to the computer still playing back their crime, “—to here, in less than a half hour. You destroyed my lab results then spent the night fucking me.” She cringed at the hurt in her voice. “You need to get the hell out of my room. Out of my damn life!”