Hunting Her (The Keeping Her #6) (3 page)

There
was a long silence before Jeff spoke again.  "Will you be safe with
him?"

Xena
looked into Logan’s eyes and smiled, a blatant challenge he was going to answer
at the first opportunity.  "I can handle myself."

"Right."
 The man, Jeff, had a slightly off tone to his voice that said he was well
aware of that fact, and the memory of how he knew it was not altogether
pleasant.

Xena
still held Logan’s eyes while she reached to her right ear and extracted a
small device and clear wire.  She dropped it to the ground and crushed it
beneath the red sole of her sexy shoe.

"This
is not the first time information has been compromised?" Logan asked now
that he was sure no one could hear them.

She
ignored his question and asked her own.

"You
think your friend could follow this trail?"  She picked up the e-mail she
had copied from the printer behind the desk and walked back to the computer,
motioning him to do what he needed to do.

He let
her have that play.  It was a bad idea to stand around talking in hostile
territory.  Who knows if the place was wired for sound.  They had both been
careful to say no names, no sense pressing their luck.  He briefly took the
time to forward the e-mail to a dummy account and then did his best to erase any
signs that they had been there by wiping the machine.  Short of setting it on fire,
it was the best they could do in the situation.  Logan motioned to the door. 
"Let's find out."

He
watched her look him over, and he did the same for her.  No blood on either of
them, in fact neither had a hair out of place.  He watched her appreciatively
when she leaned down slightly and replaced her baton in a custom sheath just
above the inside of her knee.  Then made the folded paper she held disappear in
the same way.  He had no idea how she had retrieved the weapon without anyone
noticing, but then again when she leaned over like that a man’s eyes
automatically went other places. 

And it
must be said the woman was fast. 

He would
find out later he was sure, when he had the time and space to peal that dress
off her and discover all her secrets.

When
they were both satisfied they looked the part of partygoers, they slipped out
the reinforced steel door and headed back to the party.

 It was
only as they rejoined the crowd briefly on their way out of the house that
Logan realized what was niggling at the back of his head.

Logan
realized then that her eyes had not even shifted for the fight.  He knew his
had shifted to wolf gold more than once with his emotions.  It was rare for a
shifter to show enough control to keep the animal out of such a fight, but he
had a lot of practice under extreme circumstances.  Clearly, she had even more
than he did, because not only did her eyes not change, but neither had her
scent.  Not once did he smell her animal peeking out during the violence or the
threat beforehand. 
How the hell did she manage that?

Xena
looked around the apartment with a little amazement.  As far as she knew Logan
and his people had no business affairs in this part of Europe, but it was clear
the house was more than a rental.  The security system was top of the line, and
she should know, she had circumvented enough of them.  The view of the city
center from the window was impressive as were the modern amenities mixed with
old world charm.  Clearly, the Lionsgate pack, or Logan himself, was not
hurting for money.

She
lifted a brow at the multi-key system with both a retina scan and voice
recognition.  She looked at Logan who was staring at her with wolf gold eyes as
soon as the door closed behind them and the security system was set.  "You
people don't mess around."

"Security
is our business," he said.  His mind was clearly on other things.  From
the burning gold of his eyes, he had already moved to the sex portion of the
evening.

"Whoa
there cowboy," she said when he took a step toward her.  Her hand up to
stop him in his tracks.  Xena took a step back just to be on the safe side. 
"You want to tell me what kind of business you’re in that you have
dealings with men like Jiri Kral, and safe houses in countries I have no record
of you ever visiting?"

Logan
cocked his head to study her.  "Record?"

"Did
you think I wouldn't find out everything I could about my mate before deciding
if I wanted to take the plunge?"

The air
around them suddenly went static.  "Deciding?" Logan asked mildly
enough, not fooling Xena in the least.

She
watched him, ready to move if he came at her, but something told her that was
not really his style.  She had a feeling that when he made his move, she
wouldn’t see it coming.  "I haven't decided if I want to be mated
yet."  Then she went on and gave the wolf’s tail a good yank, not sure why
she felt compelled to challenge him, but she didn't stop the impulse. 
"And whatever you think, I am more than an animal to be lead about by
chemistry.  If I choose not to mate, you won't have a say in it."

Another
long silence and then Logan spoke, his voice low, and his eyes shifting to what
she could only call hunting mode.  "Where is your beast?"  The words
were softly uttered almost as if he was asking himself rather than her.  He
didn't appear to move, but suddenly he was too close for comfort, and she
scented his wolf closer to the surface than she had yet felt.  "If I
didn’t know better I’d say you’re full human."

Xena
licked her lips, wanting to catch that scent on her tongue, and Logan homed in
on the move, his eyes firing hot in a second.  Xena just stopped herself from
repeating the action.  "I think, before we get distracted here we should
give your friend Eli a call and get the ball rolling on this e-mail.  I would
like to know before it bites me on the ass who wants me dead.  There are not
that many people who would have enough information to burn me like that."

Logan
watched her lips as she talked, and she felt as much as saw the hunting wolf in
his eyes while he watched her.  It would have been a lot easier to deal with
him if he were not so sexy just looking at him had her body readying itself. 
And when he turned predatory eyes her way she forgot all her careful intentions
and had to fight to keep from biting the man.  She felt her coyote start to
stir as her thoughts betrayed her and his scent wrapped around her. 

Logan,
the
sexy bastard
, raised his head and scented.  Then he smiled his own
challenge her way.  "There you are," he murmured, nearly purring the
words in that sexy as all hell drawl of his.

"Logan,"
she snapped aware that her nipples were hard enough they would be showing
through the dress if not for the layers of padding between them and the slick
stretchy fabric.  "Focus."

His
smile widened as he caught her eyes with satisfied heat in his own.  "Oh I
am, darlin'. I am."

"On
the job," she added with emphasis.

"Speaking
of that," he said.  His stance relaxing marginally, his eyes turning hazel
and shrewd.  "Want to tell me what you are working on that involved the
humans in shifter affairs, and which organization you are affiliated
with?"

Xena
wondered that his shift in topic and mood did not make her dizzy. 
"No," she answered mildly enough.  "Want to tell me how you came
to do business with an asshat like Jiri Kral, and why Lionsgate needs a
permanent safe house in Prague?"

Logan
smiled again, this smile had the blade sharp edge that he had given Sven, the
now dead swede, at the party.  "You show me yours and I'll show you
mine."

Xena
gave her own version of the smile back to him.  "When and if I decide it’s
worth taking the chance on you I'll let you know."  She looked him over
blatant and assessing.  "Until then I suggest you make yourself useful,
and call your friend."  She tilted her head and flipped her long fall of
dark hair back over her shoulder.  "Or are you just another pretty face
after all?"

Logan
laughed, and unlike the chuckle at the party, this one sounded real and it
danced down her spine like a hand over naked skin.

"Darlin'
you have no idea who you are playing with," Logan said adding a sexy
rumble to his drawl.  Xena had to work not to show the shiver he induced in
her. 

He
stepped forward until he was close enough she felt the heat of him curling
around her.  She licked her lips again, her head falling back, her eyes caught
in the gold of his predator.  "But keep it up," he murmured, so much
taller than her he had to bend his head down to talk directly into her ear. 
His cheek brushed hers on the way down and just that simple touch had her
coyote pushing against her control again.  She almost missed the rest of his
rumbled words in her distraction.  "There is nothing I like better than a
good chase."

Xena
stilled utterly and fought the need of her animal to bite the neck that was so
close to her mouth. 
What the hell,
she thought, a little desperately.
I had more control when he full out kissed me at the party.

"And
darlin'" he added, his nose nudging the warm skin behind her ear.  His
voice dropping to an angry growl.  "When I catch you I'm going to fuck you
so hard you'll feel my claim in your fuckin' DNA."

Then
while she was still attempting to relearn how to breath he bit her where her
neck met her shoulder.  Not enough to break the skin and mark her, but enough
that she gasped and felt it in her knees.  Enough that she stood there feeling
it long after he turned and walked out of the room.

Xena
sucked in a much needed breath and tried to blink her mind back into gear.  Her
fingers went to that spot on her neck that still felt the heat of him and
wondered that it didn’t burn her fingers.

Shit. 
Fuck.  Shit. 
The
curses ran through her head while she felt her coyote break free of the walls
she had subdued her with while she worked.  She knew if she had a mirror, she
would see her eyes had shifted to a gold as hot as Logan’s had been.  She had
the appalling thought that, if the man had not sauntered out of the room when
he did, it would have ended a whole lot different. 
I am in so much trouble.

***

Logan's
wolf didn’t like leaving his mate behind when he could still feel the taste of
her desire on his tongue.  He knew he could have her in his bed, and his wolf
was all in agreement, even if it was only the chemistry between mates that
would get her there.  But Logan knew she would have no compunction in running
again.  If he marked and bedded her before she was truly won she would be gone,
and he’d had a hard enough time finding her the first time.  Not to mention he
had the feeling she had wanted him to find her.  If he pressed this and she
truly ran from him, well, he was not sure he could find her when she really
didn’t want to be found.  Not to mention holding her would be next to
impossible.  No, if he wanted to claim his mate the hunt would be a long one,
and she was going to have to come to him.  Not that he wouldn't do everything
in his power to show her what she was missing in the meantime.

She had
been warned.  When she finally came to him it would not be easy and sweet
between them, already his wolf was half crazed with the need to claim her.  No,
it would be a full out fucking and claiming and he would hold nothing back.

Logan
grunted when the thought led him to a painfully hard dick.  He would win her,
he had no doubt, but he hoped like fuck she didn’t make him wait too long.  He
needed to claim his mate, and the call of it was just going to get worse the
longer she held him off.

With a
silent curse for the stubbornness of women, he booted up the computer and got
himself settled in the desk chair.  He didn’t take even a moment to admire the
view of Prague out the large picture window before him, his eyes on the screen
of the computer while it worked, his thoughts never left his mate.  The picture
of her fighting in that red dress and heels was burned into his brain.  He
scented her entering the room behind him and shook off the thoughts, busying
himself with opening the encrypted e-mail program for Lionsgate.

He typed
an instant message to Eli and waited for the response.  He had called the man
and given him a heads up on the way to the house, so he knew he would be on the
job and waiting at his computer.  Or computers, as the case may be.  Usually,
Eli was surrounded by two or three screens at a time as he worked his magic. 
And magic it was, as far as Logan was concerned.  Logan might be good at
finding people, but Eli on a computer was like watching a genius at work.  He
had no doubt the black panther shifter would find out who sent those e-mails.

His
phone rang and he set it to speaker when he saw who it was.  "Talk to me."

"Got
no fucking clue where this came from," Eli muttered over the phone,
surprising Logan with the words, and the tone.  He had rarely heard Eli
frustrated.  The man usually faced every situation with an off color joke. 
"The IP is faked, and the signal was bounced to hell and back."

"Are
you saying you can't find who did this?" Logan knew Eli could hear the
disbelief in his words, but the man took it as a challenge regardless.

"Fuck
no, I'm not telling you that,” he answered grouchily.  "I'm telling you
that it's going to take some time."

Logan
cursed silently in his own head.  He looked back at Xena who was leaning against
the doorframe.  She had taken off the shoes, and stood barefooted in just that
dress.  Something about the casualness of her naked feet had his brain
stuttering right to the bedroom.  He turned back to the computer with an effort
and stared blankly at the screen while he attempted to form a helpful thought. 
"I need to get Xena out of Prague and somewhere she can't be traced.  If
they’re good enough to stump you for any length of time they are good enough to
cause more problems."

Immediately
Eli's tone over the phone changed back to his usual casually cheerful letch. 
"How is
Xena
?  Did I mention how much I like the name
Xena
?" 
The tome of Eli's voice was more than a little suggestive.  "I always had
a thing for Lucy Lawless you know."

Logan
snorted.  "As long as you are limiting your fantasies to the warrior
princess you can like her name as much as you want."

"Okay,
but does yours wear leather and have the ability to crush men with her
thighs?"

Xena
laughed behind Logan and silence answered the sexy sound over the speaker. 
Yeah, the laugh was that good, it shut even Eli up. 

"I'm
five foot two in my bare feet, and look nothing like Lucy Lawless," she
answered on that laugh.  "And if I wanted a man dead, I would not need to
let him close enough to feel my thighs."

"Please,"
Eli said and his voice sounded wheedling.  "Please tell me she matches the
voice."

Logan
growled, but he didn’t answer because Xena was close enough to touch and it was
taking all his energy to stop from grabbing her and staking a claim that even
over the phone Eli would not mistake.

"Is
your friend as pathetic as he sounds?" she asked mildly enough, the laugh
still in her eyes, and on her tilted lips.

"Yes,"
Logan answered promptly.  Making her laugh again.

Xena
obviously was done playing because she sat down on the edge of the desk and
looked serious.  "How long do you think it will take to get the info on
the e-mail?"

Eli must
have been even more distracted then he seemed because it took him a minute to
answer.  "No clue, it could take days, it could take longer.  In the meantime,
Lucas says to get you and your sexy voiced siren to Lionsgate.  We will discuss
the next moves once you’re safe."

Logan
watched Xena raise a brow at the command, but it made sense so he agreed. 
"We'll be on the first plane home."

"No
need.  Lucas sent Shawn and Cleo after you as soon as we got your call.  They
were the closest and already in Germany so you have back up."

Logan
raised a brow at that.  "What were they doing in Germany?"

"Besides
each other?"  Eli joked.  "What do you think?"