It’d felt like fate when she’d left the hospital yesterday afternoon. At the time she’d been frantic with worry as she’d carried Willa away from yet another doctor who’d been unable to explain the girl’s debilitating headaches and fever that would come and go without warning.
But then she’d caught the unmistakable scent of Pantera.
Sending Willa back to the abandoned school with Tarin, one of the young men she’d rescued over the years, she’d trailed behind the tall stranger with white-gold hair until he’d disappeared into a private office.
Dr. Savary.
She knew then he had to be one of the mysterious healers she’d heard whispered about in the lab when she was still a captive.
Perhaps the one person in the entire world capable of helping Willa.
Karen studied her determined expression with blatant concern.
“If you bring the male here you expose us all to the beast-men.”
Indy reached to grab her friend’s hand. She thrived on danger, but she wasn’t the only one who might be hurt by the arrival of a Pantera.
The beast-men might have been kept strictly separated from the humans in the labs, but Indy knew enough about the creatures to realize that they were ruthless predators who would kill without mercy.
“It’s a risk, and if anyone prefers to bail, I completely understand,” she said.
She meant every word. Over the years she’d rescued over twenty captives from Benson Enterprises and the various annexes. Some had returned to their families. Some had simply disappeared. But five had remained with her, moving from place to place as she’d avoided the hired thugs who were constantly searching for her. The last thing she wanted was to put them in even more danger.
Karen scowled at her perfectly reasonable explanation.
“Don’t be an idiot. No one is going to bail,” the woman assured her. “We all love Willa as much as you.”
“Yes,” Indy agreed with a small sigh. They did. In less than six months the little girl had stolen all their hearts.
“And just as importantly we all know what we owe you,” Karen continued.
Indy scowled. “Don’t say that. No one owes me a damned thing.”
“You saved us.”
Tugging her hand free, Indy shrugged aside the woman’s soft words.
“I was screwing with the guards,” she muttered. She hated when Karen got all mushy. “Nothing pisses them off more than losing a prisoner.”
“So tough.” Karen gave a resigned shake of her head. “Why can’t you just admit that you’re one of the good guys?”
Indy snorted. Who wanted to be a good guy? They always finished last.
“I’m a thief, a liar, and I’m about to become a kidnapper,” she pointed out in dry tones. “Hardly the stuff of heroes.”
Karen’s pretty face softened with genuine affection. “Say what you want, Indy. You have our loyalty. We’ll stand at your side no matter what your decision.” The woman glanced toward the sleeping Willa. “It’s what families do.”
“Christ.” Indy gave a sharp laugh. “Has there ever been a more dysfunctional bunch?”
Karen’s smile faded, her eyes filled with pain. “Yes.”
Indy hastily changed the subject. Karen never talked about her life before being captured by the Benson Enterprise goons and Indy never pressed for details.
“You have the cage set up?” she instead demanded.
“I do.” Karen shuddered. “Filthy thing.”
Karen was the only one of them who could actually touch the metal bars that were laced with malachite. The rest of them had been infected with enough Pantera blood, bone marrow, DNA, and god only knew what else to be able to endure the coppery mineral.
Indy had nearly killed herself trying to salvage the stupid thing from the Haymore Center after it’d burned to the ground.
“It’s the only thing that will hold a Pantera.”
“Yeah.” Karen grimaced. “Now we just have to get him in there.”
Indy smiled with more confidence than she felt. “Leave that to me.”
Karen bit her lower lip. “Indy, I wish you wouldn’t go alone.”
“This is my responsibility.”
“Why do you always take everything on your shoulders?”
“It was my decision to take Willa from the lab.” Her stomach twisted with regret. Her impulsive nature wasn’t always a good thing. There were times when she made hasty decisions that hurt others. “It’s possible that removing her is what made her sick.”
Karen shook her head. “It’s much more likely that whatever the bastards were infecting her with is what caused the damage.”
Indy shrugged. “We won’t know until I get the doctor.”
Karen narrowed her eyes. “A very smooth sidestep of my question.”
Indy held up her hands. It wasn’t a sidestep. Or not a deliberate one. The truth was…she didn’t really know why she assumed she should be in charge of fixing the world.
She just did.
“It’s my responsibility because it’s what I do,” she muttered.
“Indy?”
The small voice came from the bed and Indy leaned forward to whisper in Karen’s ear.
“Get the dart gun from the locker and put it in my backpack,” she ordered. “I’m going to speak with Willa before I take off.”
Karen gave a reluctant nod, heading out of the room as Indy crossed the cracked and peeling floor to stand next to the bed.
Instinctively her hand reached to push the blond curls from Willa’s tiny, heart-shaped face. Although they didn’t have an exact date for the child’s birth, they assumed she must be around five or six years old.
Too young to have endured being tortured.
“Hey, kitten,” she murmured, forcing a smile to her lips even as she took in the child’s flushed cheeks and the hectic glitter in the wide hazel eyes.
Willa flashed her dimples. “I’m not a kitten.”
“Are you sure?” Indy teased, reaching to brush her fingers over her cheeks, covertly feeling for a fever. She hid her grimace as she felt the heat that radiated from the child’s skin. “You have two eyes like a kitty.” She grabbed Willa’s ears, giving them a light tug. “And two fuzzy ears. And a nose with whiskers—”
“I’m a girl,” Willa laughingly protested.
“Ah. So you are,” Indy murmured, her fingers pushing the curls from Willa’s damp forehead. “The prettiest little girl in the whole world.”
“As pretty as Karen?” Willa demanded.
Indy chuckled. “Just as pretty.”
“And as smart as Nadia?”
Indy nodded. Nadia was an intensely shy young woman with a self-conscious stutter who Indy had rescued five years before. It was because of her skill with healing that Willa had survived this long.
“Just as smart. And as strong as Tarin,” she assured the little girl. “And as loyal as Caleb.”
Willa reached up a small hand to touch Indy’s cheek. “And as brave as you?”
Indy covered the tiny fingers with her hand, pressing them against her skin.
“There’s no need for you to be brave, Willa,” she said, the words a solemn oath. “I’m going to take care of you. I promise.”
CHAPTER 2
Indy leaned against the rough brick wall of the building, trying to remember how to breathe.
She tried to tell herself that it was fear that was making her heart pound and her palms sweat. She was, after all, creeping through the dark, intent on capturing a lethal male who could kill her without a thought.
But she couldn’t lie. Not even to herself.
The sensations jolting through her had nothing to do with fear, and everything to do with shocked fascination.
Good. God.
When she’d trailed the Pantera to his office yesterday it had been from a distance and she’d never actually seen his face.
Tonight, however, she’d arrived at dusk and picked out an emergency exit d
oor that provided a place to hide as well as a full view of the parking lot. Two hours later, Dr. Savary had strolled around the corner of the building with a blond-haired woman clinging to his arm.
Despite the dark, Indy had easily been able to make out the man’s exquisitely carved features. The wide brow, the narrow blade of a nose, the high, chiseled cheekbones and the sculpted curve of his lips. His white-gold hair contrasted sharply with dark eyes set beneath thick brows, and the rich bronze of his skin.
She’d never seen such a beautiful male and for a second she found herself dazzled, unable to believe he could be real.
It wasn’t until he came to a halt at the edge of the parking lot that she managed to regain control of her sizzling hormones.
Okay, he was gorgeous. And for the first time in her life she was consumed with the need to rip off a man’s clothes and lick him from head to toe.
But she couldn’t afford to be distracted.
Not when Willa’s life hung in the balance.
Hidden in the shadows, she watched as the woman leaned forward, pressing her impressive boobs against the doctor’s chest.
“You’re sure that you can’t join me for dinner?” she purred. “My lasagna is good enough to make grown men cry.”
Indy nearly gagged. Was that how a normal woman tried to convince a man to have sex with her?
Yeesh.
“Tempting,” the man murmured.
The blond giggled. “What could I offer to make it more tempting?”
His hand lifted to cup her cheek. “Elan, look at me.”
She obediently tilted back her head. “Mmm?”
“You will forget about our evening tonight,” he ordered in soft tones. “You worked late. Alone.”
Indy pressed a hand over her mouth as she watched the blank expression descend on the woman’s pretty face. She’d heard about the Pantera ability to mess with humans’ minds, but she’d never seen it in action.
“Alone,” the blond repeated.
The doctor turned her toward the parking lot, giving her a gentle push.
“Go home, female.”
“Yes,” she agreed in wooden tones, walking toward a nearby BMW. “Home.”
Dr. Savary remained at the edge of the lot as the woman started her car and drove away. Then he turned, as if he was about to re-enter the hospital. Indy hastily stepped forward. This was her best, and potentially only opportunity to capture the man.
First, however, she had to get close enough to strike.
“Nice trick,” she drawled, stepping from the doorway.
He stilled, watching her with the eyes of a predator as she strolled forward.
Heat prickled over her skin despite her leather coat, and her hand instinctively tightened on the dart gun she had hidden in her pocket.
“It’s not nice to spy on people,” he said on a low growl.
She forced a smile to her lips, trying to ignore the strange awareness racing through her body. It was almost as if there was an electrical current racing between them, zapping her with bolts of excitement.
“It’s not nice to screw with their minds either.”
His nose flared as he caught her scent, his muscles clenching as he studied her in wary confusion.
“Who are you?”
She shrugged, not surprised by his puzzlement. He had to be sensing she wasn’t just another harmless human.
Which meant she had only a few seconds left before he decided to figure out exactly what she was.
“Indy,” she said, trying to look small and harmless as she took a few more steps forward.
“Just Indy?”
She unconsciously licked her lips. His voice was a low, slow drawl, like melted molasses.
“Just Indy,” she rasped.
His gaze darted around the parking lot, his instincts clearly warning him something was wrong.
“Hasn’t anyone told you that it’s dangerous for a young girl to be out on her own?”
“Are you asking if I’m alone?”
The dark, mesmerizing gaze returned to her pale face. “I was expressing my concern—” His words were cut off as she abruptly jerked her hand from the jacket and aimed the dart gun at the center of his chest. A second later she’d pulled the trigger and he glanced down in shock. “Shit,” he breathed.
He managed to take a step backward before he was swaying to the side. Just for a minute he glared at her with stark incredulity, then, with a low groan, he toppled to the hard pavement.
Indy rushed forward, regret twisting her heart.
She knew the malachite she’d shot into his body would cause agonizing pain.
“I really am sorry about this,” she muttered, hooking her hands beneath his shoulders and dragging him the short distance to her truck that was parked in a loading dock.
Not for the first time she thanked whatever god might be listening that she was far stronger than a normal woman as she wrestled the unconscious doctor into the back of the truck. Angel might look sleek and lean, but he weighed a freaking ton.
Wiping the sweat from her brow, she glanced around to make sure she hadn’t been spotted. When no alarms went off, she climbed into the cab of the vehicle that Tarin had stolen from The Haymore Center and shoved it into gear.
Less than half an hour later she was back at the school and Tarin and Caleb had carried Dr. Savary into the locker room where Karen had set up the cage.
Still on edge, Indy had ordered the boys to go back outside to make sure she hadn’t been followed. Not that Tarin would thank her for thinking of him as a boy, she wryly acknowledged. He’d just turned twenty years old and considered himself very much a man.
Crouching beside the cage, she silently studied her prisoner as Karen entered the dilapidated room that’d been stripped bare of everything but a few rusty lockers and an empty shower stall.
“Good god…” the woman breathed, giving a disbelieving shake of her head. “He’s magnificent.”
Indy rolled her eyes. The man was clearly lethal to poor women.
“Karen,” she muttered.
“What?” She gave a helpless shrug. “I’m just saying.”
“He’s a shifter.”
“So what? We’re…” The woman gave a vague wave of her hand. “Whatever the hell we are.”
“True.”
Karen leaned forward, her brow furrowed. “Shouldn’t he be awake by now?”
Indy chewed her bottom lip, her gaze locked on the sculpted bronze features that looked disturbingly lifeless.
“I don’t know.”
“Oh Indy, I hope you didn’t truly harm him,” Karen breathed, her kind heart unable to bear the thought of anyone being hurt.
“So do I,” Indy muttered, pretending to be a true hard-ass even as her gaze was locked on the man sprawled across the cement floor. “There’s no way I’ll be able to find another Pantera doctor.”
Karen sucked in a shocked breath at her callous words. “Indy.”
She turned her head to meet her friend’s chiding glance, her tension easing as she sensed the Pantera’s heartbeat quicken as he started to regain consciousness.
“It’s okay, Karen,” she soothed the woman. “I stole the darts from our captors’ little shop of horrors. The bastards were ruthless, but they wouldn’t risk killing their test subjects. The Pantera were too hard to get their hands on.”
Karen grimaced. “I hope you’re right.”
Indy reached to give her friend’s hand a comforting squeeze.
“Why don’t you make something to eat?” she asked, knowing Karen would feel better if she felt like she was doing something to help. And, of course, it would get Karen out of the room when Dr. Savary fully wakened and condemned them to hell. An inevitable fate that was oddly depressing. “He’s going to be hungry when he does wake up.”
“Okay.” Karen studied her, clearly aware that Indy was trying to get rid of her. “Don’t do anything foolish.”
Indy watched her friend reluctantly wa
lk out of the locker room, her mouth dry as the air abruptly warmed with the power of the man’s frustration.
He might be lying unmoving on the floor, but she could hear the increase in his heartbeat and feel the prickle of energy that told her the creature inside him was alert and dangerously pissed off.
“I know you’re awake,” she said, relieved when her voice came steady.
There was a brief pause, as if the man was considering his options. Then, clearly realizing he was temporarily trapped, he opened his eyes and shoved himself into a sitting position.
He was pale and a lingering pain was etched onto his elegant features, but his beauty was still breathtaking. Helplessly her gaze skimmed over his hair that shimmered with a pure white-gold beneath the overhead lights and his eyes that studied her with an intense intelligence.
“Congratulations, Indy,” he growled, the air vibrating with his barely leashed fury. “It’s not often I underestimate the enemy.”
She flinched at the mocking derision in his voice before she was tilting her chin to a determined angle.
“I’m not your enemy.”
His short, ugly laugh echoed through the air. “You shot me with a malachite dart and locked me in a cage.” He glanced around the depressingly shabby room with its peeling paint and broken window covered by some weird-ass chicken wire. “Trust me, honey, we’re enemies.”
It shouldn’t matter what he thought of her. He was a means to an end. Nothing more than a tool to save Willa.
But suddenly she realized it did matter.
A lot.
“Let me explain.”
He leaned against the cot that Karen had placed in the cage, folding his arms over his chest as he stretched out his legs.
“Do I have a choice?”
She slowly rose to her feet. Even though he was caged, the Pantera managed to command the room with the sheer force of his presence.
“What do you know about Stanton Locke?”
He hissed, a low growl rumbling in his chest. “You work for him?”
“Hell no,” she denied, her voice harsh. “I was a prisoner in one of the labs he owns.”
He tensed, clearly caught off guard by her sharp response. Then…he studied her. Really studied her. Perhaps for the first time.