“You’re not,” she said through her tears. She flicked off her light and crouched in front of her brother. “You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
There was a brief flash of his trademark smile as he said, “I’m not. But I will be. Just get me the fuck out of here, Kat.”
Lucas was standing in the wrecked doorway, muttering into his cell phone. Probably calling back Nick and the guys, since the enemy in this case consisted of a lone park ranger. An obviously unbalanced park ranger, but no one they couldn’t handle. The vampire lord stepped back, and Kurt appeared in the doorway.
“Hey,” he said, his eyes meeting Dan’s. “You need a shower, man.”
Dan laughed, his eyes filling with tears. “That’s what I’ve been saying.”
Kurt crossed the room in three long strides and did what her brother hadn’t permitted her to do. He wrapped his arms around Daniel, filth and all, and Dan clung to the big vampire, his shoulders shaking as he cried silent tears of relief. Kurt pulled the blanket away with one hand, saw the metal cuff around Dan’s ankle and snapped the chain with an angry growl. Then he looked up and met Kathryn’s gaze.
“I’d like to get him cleaned up, if that’s okay with you.”
Kathryn nodded silently, and Kurt started to help her brother to stand, but at the last minute Dan scrabbled for something under the blankets and came up with a camera.
Kathryn stared, recognizing it for one of those she’d left with the sheriff. “How—” she started to ask, suspicion blooming. “I stored your gear at the Sheriff’s Office.”
Dan shook his head, as if reading her mind. “The nut brought it to me, bragged how clever he’d been, stealing it from under the Sheriff’s nose.” He tightened his hold on the camera, lifting it to eye level. “This is gonna win me a Pulitzer, Kat.”
“Dan,” she scolded.
Kurt urged him toward the hallway, but Dan stopped in front of her and took her hand. “I knew you’d come.”
Kathryn tightened her hand on his. “It was Kurt who found you,” she said, giving the bartending vampire a grateful look. “I was sure Alex Carmichael had you.”
“Alex?” Dan repeated in confusion.
“Later,” Kurt said. “Shower first.”
Dan laughed a little, gave Kathryn’s fingers a final squeeze and repeated, “I knew you’d come.” Then, as if the exchange had taken what little energy he had left, he leaned heavily against Kurt, who all but carried him out of the filthy room.
When they were gone, she gave Lucas a hard look. “Pilarski,” she said tightly.
“All tied up with a pretty bow, just as you ordered, Agent Hunter,” he replied mockingly.
“I know you think I’m foolish—”
“Not at all,” he said, then grimaced and covered his nose and mouth with one hand. “But could we finish this somewhere else? Even a human nose must be offended by the smell in here.”
Kathryn belatedly remembered the stench, and her stomach roiled. She’d been so preoccupied with Dan . . . Fighting a sudden urge to vomit, she hurried from the filthy room, pushing Lucas ahead of her. “Move, vampire, unless you want me to add to the aroma.”
Lucas grabbed her and raced them both down the hall and outside into the parking lot, where Kathryn leaned over, hands on her knees as she sucked in deep breaths of the brisk night air.
“God, that was awful,” she gasped. “I can’t imagine . . . Hell, I need a shower.”
“Here comes your sheriff,” Lucas commented from where he stood several feet away, probably just in case she lost the battle against her stomach.
Kathryn looked up as Sheriff Sutcliffe pulled into the lot, followed by a second patrol unit, both with their light bars flashing.
“But I didn’t call him yet.”
“I had Nick call before we went in,” Lucas said mildly. He shrugged when she gave him a questioning look. “I didn’t feel like waiting around for the local Garda to get here. It can take a while for someone to show up in these small towns, especially at night.”
Kathryn straightened, then patted Lucas’s arm in appreciation as she went to meet the sheriff.
“Sheriff Sutcliffe,” she greeted him.
“Agent Hunter,” he responded. “How’s your brother?”
“Exhausted and hungry, but nothing a few days rest won’t take care of.”
“You didn’t call for a rescue unit?”
“A friend took him in,” she said, letting him assume she meant in to the hospital. “We thought it would be faster.”
“So, he’s been right here the whole time,” Sutcliffe said, shaking his head. “How’d you find him?”
She nodded. “Anonymous tip on my cell phone about ninety minutes ago. The voice was a man’s, but muffled. He said my brother was being held here, and since we were already en route from the airport, we came directly to the park to check it out.”
“You waited to call me,” he said in obvious disapproval.
“That’s correct, sir. I saw no reason to make a scene if it turned out to be a prank. After all, you and I both checked things out here at the visitor center, and nothing tweaked our radar.” She phrased it deliberately, making herself just as responsible as the sheriff—maybe more—for overlooking anything that might have indicated her brother was being held right under their noses.
“I see.” His gaze traveled over the vampires ranged behind her. There were only three—Lucas, Mason and Nicholas—since Lucas had already sent the others away. He would have sent even those two, but he hadn’t been willing to leave Kathryn alone with the prisoner, and Nicholas had refused to leave Lucas alone with the human authorities. Trust-Issues-R-Us, apparently.
“Mister Donlon and his associates were with me when I received the tip,” she explained, feeling only a slight twinge at manipulating the truth.
“Do you know where it came from? The tip, I mean.”
“I’ve already had it checked. The call came from a throwaway cell. Impossible to trace.”
“Damn things. Well—” He looked beyond her to Cody Pilarski, who was hanging miserably between two husky vampires. “What have you got to say for yourself, Cody?”
Pilarski lifted his head and addressed the sheriff. “I want to deal,” he said sullenly. “This was Belinda’s idea, not mine. Hunter’d be dead if I hadn’t protected him.”
Sheriff Sutcliffe shrugged. “Not my call,” he said, then turned to Kathryn, who was still absorbing Pilarski’s claim. Belinda had been the one who instigated the kidnapping? She was the park ranger Kathryn had interviewed on her first day in town. The one who’d gotten all flustered when talking about Dan. Kathryn had assumed she was smitten, but maybe she’d simply been guilty.
“I’ll hold Pilarski overnight,” the sheriff was saying, “have the County pick him up in the morning. And don’t you worry about him getting bail, no matter what deal he gets. We don’t take to kidnappers in South Dakota.”
“I appreciate that. And now, the scene is yours, Sheriff. I know I should stay, but my brother needs me. So, if it’s all right with you—”
“Don’t you worry,” Sutcliffe assured her. “I understand, and I know where you work,” he added, with a wink.
Kathryn laughed, relieved. She’d known she was pushing it by not hanging around. It was bad enough that her brother, the most important witness, was already gone. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “You have my numbers, and I’ll make sure we’re available to give our statements.”
“You’ll be in town?” Sutcliffe verified, proving he wasn’t totally gullible.
Kathryn nodded. “A while,” she said vaguely, very aware of Lucas’s keen hearing picking up every word she said. “You can reach me on my cell.”
“Good enough, then. I’m glad everything worked out for you and your brother, Agent Hunter. This is a good day.”
“Yes, it is, Sheriff.”
Lucas came up behind her, not touching, but close enough that she could feel the heat of his presence. They stood silently until the sheriff ambled over to confer with his deputies, and then Lucas dipped his head to her ear and said, “A while, Kathryn?”
She shivered at the low rumble of his voice and the slight menace in the question. She’d known this was coming. She had to go back to Virginia, her job was there. And her home, such as it was. In a perfect world, she might have stayed in this little town, bought a quaint little cottage and settled down to raise goats, or maybe paint masterpieces. It always happened that way in stories. Unfortunately, this was the real world.
“Kathryn?” Lucas demanded.
She turned to face him, her hand automatically lifting to caress his beard-roughened jaw, her eyes meeting his golden gaze. And her heart twisted. She didn’t know how it could have happened. Didn’t know why it had happened now, and with a vampire of all people. But she loved him. It was going to tear her apart when she had to leave.
“A while,” she repeated, stroking her thumb over his soft lips.
Lucas wasn’t fooled. He eyed her suspiciously and said, “We’ll talk.”
Kathryn nodded. Saying good-bye was going to be hard enough, she thought sadly, but Lucas was used to getting his own way. He was going to make it even harder.
“Do you know where Kurt took Dan?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Kurt lives at the ranch.”
Kathryn gave him a surprised look.
“Most of my people do,” he explained. “Vampires tend to live in nests. It’s safer that way.”
“Can I see my brother, then?”
He gave her a narrow look. “Aren’t you coming back to the ranch tonight?”
Lucas was far too intuitive for Kathryn’s comfort. “Of course,” she assured him, even though she would rather have gone to the motel. Kathryn didn’t believe in dragging out the inevitable. Better to make a clean break of it. But Dan was at the ranch, and in her heart, she wanted these last few hours with Lucas. Tomorrow would be soon enough for heartbreak.
