Madison Layle - Falke’s Captive

Careful, Sindre warned, taking a swipe through the bars at the professor who advanced on Kelan.

It slowed the man down and gave Kelan time to regain his footing.

The professor attacked without a word, and Kelan went on the defensive, ducking a book thrown at his head and dodging an office chair the man sent rolling at him. Kelan knocked the latter object away, and it tumbled out the back of the trailer. He assumed the squeal of tires was Reidar’s effort to avoid the chair on the winding mountain road, but he didn’t have time to look back.

He clung to the cage and pulled himself forward, but had to throw up an arm and turn away when the professor let loose with a fire extinguisher at his face. The white powdery cloud cleared just in time for him to block a blow from the same canister, although the fucking thing hurt like a son of bitch. And it pissed him off. He launched himself at the man, and the two fell to the floor, punching and scrambling for an advantage.

As Kelan gained the upper hand, he heard a terrified squeal from Beth and saw her chair slip passed them, her feet shoving frantically at the smooth floor to stop her slide.

Kelan shoved off the professor and flung himself at her chair, snagging one branch of the wheeled base in time.

I’ve got her, Sindre said, his big paws reaching through the cage bars and wrapping around one of her legs.

Kelan let go, but before he could push to his feet, Sindre shouted, Watch out!

Beth squealed, and a blow to Kelan’s back knocked the wind from his lungs. He fell forward, sliding a few feet closer to the back of the trailer as the big rig continued its meandering climb up the mountainside. A quick grab of the tied-down ATV’s tire stopped him.

The professor bellowed, raised the canister and lunged forward.

Kelan rolled over.

Whitmore swung downward to strike the knockout blow.

Kelan barely dodged the fire extinguisher, its base clanging on the floor a mere inch from his ear.

He grabbed the professor’s arm and kicked out and up, catching the man in the gut and tumbling him head over heels clear of where Kelan lay. The professor’s cry turned into a scream of terror as his own momentum sent him sailing headfirst out the back door of the trailer.

Reidar cursed when he had to swerve to miss the damn chair careening onto the road. Gunnar braced a hand on the dash and kept talking on his cell phone to the police dispatch. He figured, and Reidar agreed, that with Beth bound in the back of the trailer, it was best to get law enforcement there as quickly as possible.

The two yahoos in the truck could scream all they liked about unusual chromosomes to the other nut-jobs in the state prison. No one was going to believe a former scientist and grad student convicted of kidnapping a woman.

“I can’t fucking pass this guy.” Reidar’s fingers hurt from the tight grip he had on the steering wheel. He continued to catch glimpses of the fight inside the trailer, and he wanted the truck stopped now. When a cloud of white obscured the view, he’d had enough and stomped on the gas, whipping his truck into the other lane.

“Yes, we’re nearing the top of the pass,” Gunnar was telling the dispatcher. “The big rig is…well, it’s beside us right now. Yeah, we’re passing it…. I know it’s dangerous! Just get someone the fuck here. There’s a woman’s life at stake, and the assholes have our cat.”

Reidar laid on the horn, trying to get the driver’s attention, but the man seemed to be in a world of his own.

Fortunately, his truck’s V-8 engine could out-pace the big rig on the steep climb. Just as they neared the top, Reidar whipped in front of the truck and braked, but paced in front of it to keep from getting run over as the semi came to a jarring halt. Thankfully it’d only been doing about thirty-five up the steep incline.

Tim jumped from the cab, cursing at them as Reidar and Gunnar left their vehicle and ran back toward the trailer. “Hey, what the fuck’s your problem?”

“You are, you dick-weed,” Gunnar snapped, running interference for Reidar who kept going.

“You enjoy kidnapping women?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Tim asked, following them until he too spotted what had already stopped Reidar in his tracks. “Who?” Tim choked on the question.

Oh, shit. Someone lay bloodied and motionless on the roadway several yards back down the lane.

“’Bout time you showed up,” Kelan said, sticking out his hand to help Reidar into the back.

With a relieved grin, Reidar clasped his hand and climbed up. “Got here as fast as I could.”

Tim looked in the trailer and stood there wide-eyed and fidgety. “What the fuck happened?

Lizzy? Oh my God.” He turned to look back at the body.

Sirens sounded in the distance, but they were fast approaching as Kelan made his way over to Beth and began releasing her from the chair.

“Come on, Tim,” Gunnar said. “Let’s go check on your boss.”

“Oh shit. Is he…I don’t understand. Lizzy? What the fuck is going on?”

Reidar unlatched the cage door and set Sindre free.

My collar is in the corner. It fell off the desk and slid over there .

“I’ll get it,” Reidar said as he went after it.

Kelan pulled the tape off Beth’s mouth.

“Ahh. Ouch.”

“Sorry,” Kelan murmured. “Just a few more strips, and I’ll have you free. Are you okay?”

Reidar fastened the collar around his brother’s neck. A glance toward the end of the trailer told him Tim still stood staring at Beth and muttering apologies, but now he was joined by the guys with badges. One was calling for an ambulance as he rushed over to Gunnar and the professor. Another climbed into the trailer, and a third began questioning Tim about the incident.

Beth looked at Kelan, then over at Reidar, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m okay…now.”

Kelan pulled her into a tight embrace, and Reidar smiled, his hand on the nape of his little brother’s neck.

The puma purred.

Kelan slid the back door shut on the display case and began to stow the empty boxes in the bottom drawer of the case when someone cleared his throat. He climbed to his feet to see Axel there.

“Where’s Reidar?”

“Here,” Reidar answered, stepping out of the back storage room with an armful of merchandise to be put on display in the second case.

“Set that down a minute. I’ve got something to discuss with you.”

While Reidar set his burden down, Kelan watched Axel who seemed unusually still. Kelan wasn’t sure he liked that; Axel’s composure usually made him nervous. He likened it to the calm before a storm. “What’s up?”

“First,” Axel began, “How’s Beth?”

“Fine,” Reidar said. The investigation into the professor’s death had been settled almost immediately, with no charges filed against Kelan or anyone else. Kelan had been acting in self-defense, and Beth’s story of her kidnapping, corroborated by the evidence at the scene, plus eyewitness testimony of Tim and the Falke brothers, put any legal ramifications to rest. “The inquiry at the university is taking forever, but we talk to her every night.”

“We’re going to see her this weekend,” Kelan added. They hoped to finally mark her as their mate, since their original plans had been thwarted by the kidnapping and subsequent investigation. As soon as they were released from interrogation, she and Tim had headed back to return the mobile lab to the university and face further inquisition there.

He and Reidar had let her go because they’d known it was something she needed to do on her own. Before she could truly be theirs, there was the matter of the grant, her dissertation and a whole host of loose ends that needed to be tied up—not the least of which was Whitmore’s promised vial of a wild cougar’s blood to Dr. Sayers, a sample the Falke family vet was more than happy to acquire. So Beth had left them with nothing more than a kiss and promise to return. The separation, nearing three weeks now, was damn near unbearable. He’d taken it as long as he could.