“Don’t play dumb. You left Colorado Springs.”
“Colorado Springs? I haven’t been there in ages.” He turned to watch her. “No ID, no can do. I know my rights. You could be a dangerous criminal, looking to steal from me.”
As soon as the breeze caught her scent and carried it to him, he could smell her floral fragrance. And more. She was a wolf. He’d begun to worry that maybe this was a case of mistaken identity, and she was the real deal.
“I can tase you first, and then you’ll be compliant,” she warned, reaching for something around her neck, the object hidden by her T-shirt. When she pulled it out, he saw it was a Taser.
Okay, now she had him worried. For a second, he imagined her taking him down, but how would she be able to load him in her car? Still, he wouldn’t be able to fight back, and she could confine his wrists in the meantime.
He lunged forward and tackled her, taking her to the ground before she had time to react. If this was the game, he was ready to play. If she was for real, he couldn’t let her tase him and confine him. The fall knocked the breath out of her, but at least she hadn’t hit anything except for leafy bushes that cushioned her fall.
Eyes wide, she took a deep breath, smelling his scent like any good wolf would, and struggled to get out from underneath him. “You’re a wolf!” She sounded shocked.
What the hell was going on? If his brothers and cousins had put her up to it, she would have known just what he was. She wouldn’t play dumb.
“My brothers didn’t send you?” He breathed in her she-wolf fragrance, floral and woman, wolf and the woods. She could really spice up his life, if she wasn’t trying to arrest him. “You really are here to take me into custody?” He couldn’t believe it.
“Yes.” Still lying beneath him, she read him his rights from memory as if she were in charge.
Smiling a little, he got a kick out of her gutsy actions. No woman, wolf or otherwise, had ever attempted to take him down like this. Feeling her heat and soft curves pressed against him, he felt his wolfish male interest in her waken.
She felt it too. Her eyes rounded and she tried to dump him off her, but he calculated the thrust with her pelvis and balanced himself to take the full brunt of her action so she didn’t win the round. All her wriggling around underneath him turned him on even more, when he was fighting damn hard to keep that part of his wolfishness at bay. Hell, even his pheromones had leaped to the forefront, telling her in no uncertain terms just how intrigued he was with her. She couldn’t deny that her own pheromones were reacting to his in the same fascinated way.
“Okay, so whoever the guy is you’re supposed to arrest, do you know if he’s a wolf?” The way she had reacted to learning Sarandon was one made him think she was clueless about that part. And that meant she had the wrong guy. Well, of course she had the wrong guy. He wasn’t the one she was looking for, no matter what she thought. He needed to get this cleared up.
“I haven’t met him—you—before.”
“Well, that’s for damn sure…about me. You would have known I’m not the one you’re looking for, if you’d met the guy you’re really after. You would know the difference in our scents, for one thing.”
“You look just like your picture, and you have the same name.”
“Which should tell you something right there. If I were on the lam, why would I be using the same name?”
“It’s your MO? You’re arrogant enough to believe you won’t get caught?”
She was cute in an exasperating way. “I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong man.” Damn glad too.
They heard something moving in the woods, and Sarandon turned his head to get a look at what it was, worried she might have backup and he’d really be in trouble. She took advantage of his distraction. Lifting her hip and grasping his shoulders with her hands, she flipped him onto his back, surprising him with her agility and strength.
She was seated on top of him, her hands holding his wrists against the ground, her jacket parted, her breasts close to his face in the formfitting black T-shirt. Her heart was racing, and he liked the way she was sitting on him, like she hoped to do more than just take him into custody. Which was why he didn’t flip her onto her back to take charge of the situation.
That’s when Sarandon saw Jake headed in their direction, camera bag slung over his shoulder, and Jake laughed. Hell, his cousin was supposed to come to his aid, not find humor in the situation. Though Sarandon had to admit if the roles had been reversed, he would have reacted in the same way.
Looking determined, Jenna pulled his arms forward to tie them. She wouldn’t be successful, not without his cooperation, and he wasn’t giving it. He flipped her onto her back again, straddling her.
“I didn’t know you’d be up here,” Jake said to Sarandon, smiling, folding his arms, watching.
“Lelandi told me you might come by,” Sarandon said to his cousin. “Great timing.”
Jake shook his head and joined them, looking down at the two of them. “I thought I might be interrupting something. I certainly never expected to see a she-wolf we don’t know out here with you. I’m Jake Silver. Sarandon’s my cousin. And you are?”
“I’m Jenna St. James, a fugitive recovery agent. And if you know what’s good for you, you’ll help me talk some sense into Sarandon. He has to come back with me to face criminal charges. We have offered a reward for his apprehension. Everyone will be looking for him so they can turn him in for the reward money. If you don’t want to face tons of police and reporters and have to explain your own complicity in helping him to avoid being returned for trial, you’ll do what’s right.”
“Well, Jenna, if you’re not Sarandon’s brothers’ idea of a joke, you have to know that as a wolf, he can’t be taken to jail.” Jake folded his arms across his chest and smirked down at them. “He’s right though. You’ve got the wrong man. The whole pack will vouch for him.”
She scowled at Jake. “I knew there’d be a problem once I learned he’s a wolf. A pack? Sure. Protect a pack member who’s nothing more than a common thief.”
“Listen, we’ll take you to meet Darien and Lelandi Silver, the pack leaders. Darien’s my brother and Sarandon’s cousin. We’ll help you in any way we can to straighten out this mistake,” Jake said. “He’s not who you’re looking for, and if someone from our pack has committed a crime, he will do the time.”
As if Jake had any authority over Sarandon, Jenna said, “Tell him to get off me.”
Jake raised a brow at Sarandon, asking in his silent way if his cousin would agree.
Sarandon didn’t trust her one bit. They’d have to disarm the lady and put the plastic ties on her, or he wasn’t letting her up.
“She’s armed and dangerous,” Sarandon said, smiling. And she was one hot little firecracker of a she-wolf who had made the trip to Elk Horn cabin all the more worthwhile. As long as they cleared up this business of him being a fugitive.
Chapter 2
“I need to call my boss,” Jenna said as the two wolves walked her toward a cabin, the smoke curling up from its chimney. She and her sisters never referred to the bail bondswoman as their mother. They thought it might not sound professional. Jenna couldn’t believe the men had taken her hostage, or the bind she was in.
Once she realized Sarandon was a wolf, she should have known others in his pack could be lurking about. Were they all involved in the identity theft and financial crimes?
Even if they weren’t, she knew they wouldn’t offer him up to pay his debt to society. Not only because he was a wolf and going to jail could be problematic. Pack members often defended one another against outsiders. They took care of their own, including handling rogue wolves who were bad news for the pack and for humans.
The problem was that her mother would have to pay the $150,000 bond if Sarandon didn’t show up for court. He could be looking at a fifteen- to thirty-year sent
ence if found guilty. Jenna wasn’t going to allow the wolf to get away with this. At the very least, he’d have to pay the bond. Even if he did pay it, he’d still be a wanted man. Unless he could prove his innocence.
Wriggling her hands proved how futile it was to get rid of the ties on her own. She let out her breath in exasperation. She couldn’t believe she was disarmed and tied up with her own plastic ties. That was humiliating.
How was she going to get herself out of this predicament? She had to convince them she was right and they needed to go along with her plan. Once she located a fugitive, she could often use psychology to control the suspect. Not all suspects could be influenced that way, but many could. She hoped it would work here. But given what had already happened, she suspected it wasn’t going to be that easy. Not only did she have the problem with the two wolves, but she also had to deal with a whole wolf pack who would unite behind Sarandon.
Jake had taken her rifle, 9 mm pistol, and Taser, but they didn’t have her pepper spray or boot knife. They’d confiscated her driver’s license, badge, car keys, and phone too.
The fact that Sarandon was a wolf raised new questions. She needed to call her mom and ask more about him. Had her mom sent one of Jenna’s sisters to get the bail bond paperwork from him at the jail when he had been arrested and confined for a few hours? If so, then whoever went to see him would know what he smelled like, and Jenna would be assured he was the right man when she brought him in. But if her mom had received the information in an email or fax, none of them would know him by scent.
Mainly, she needed to know if the man who had been arrested was a wolf. Then again, if her mother had known he was, she would have told Jenna. If Jenna had known that, she would have been even warier when trying to arrest him.
Since her mother didn’t tell her the man was a wolf, that meant either he wasn’t a wolf and Jenna had the wrong guy, or this guy was the right one, and no one had met him in person.
The suspect was a mastermind at identity theft. What if he wasn’t Sarandon but had used Sarandon’s ID to claim his identity? She couldn’t have gone after the wrong man, could she?
“Is this really necessary?” she asked, raising her hands to indicate the plastic ties.
“Once we’re at the cabin, we’ll release you,” Sarandon said. “And you can share everything you know with us.”
“That you don’t already know?”
“Absolutely. Because this is all news to me. In the business you’re in, haven’t you ever been tied up before?”
She smiled a little. Of course she had. So she could learn how to get herself out of a bind if this was done to her. Not that she’d ever had to. Until now.
“During your training? To know how it would feel to be the hostage? I mean, the captive suspect?” He smiled. Sarandon had the most devilishly disarming smile.
“No.”
“Not even to learn how to get out of the tie if a suspect turned the tables on you? Am I right?” Sarandon lifted his brows. When she didn’t answer him, he laughed. “Don’t play poker.”
She needed to school her expressions more. Or maybe he could read her so well because he was a wolf.
Jenna couldn’t believe Sarandon had taken her down. Suspects had punched, kicked, and knocked her out, but not once had the wanted suspect taken her to the ground and held her there, acting…well, interested in her.
To top that off, he’d become aroused, as if he had nothing to worry about as far as being arrested, and instead was just totally intrigued with her, which she attributed to them both being wolves. Even her attempt at overpowering him had seemed to be a turn-on. As far as her attraction to him, she couldn’t help that he was as attractive as sin. No suspect should be that good-looking. Then their pheromones were singing to each other, which had to do with a wolf’s biological need. She couldn’t believe it. As if her wolf was telling her that no matter who this was or what he had done, that wolf part of her was eager to mate with him. Physical attributes came in at a ten. Willingness to have offspring with him? Check. That was her wolf’s nature telling her what to do. Her human nature was in total conflict. Arrest him and turn him over to the police for their disposition. End of story.
Never had a perp taken her hostage either! If she made it through this okay, her sisters would never let her live it down. Not that she had any intention of letting the family know how he’d gotten the best of her, once she had him under control.
As they got closer, she could see that the log cabin sat near the river, with a dusty black Suburban parked beside it. She worried where Sarandon and his cousin intended to go with this, particularly when they had to know she wasn’t leaving peaceably without taking Sarandon with her.
“I need to make a call,” she said, her voice rising a bit in annoyance as she scowled up at Sarandon.
“To the bail bondsman you work for?” Sarandon’s hand grasped her arm firmly, and he wasn’t easing up.
At least her wrists were tied in front, which could afford her a better opportunity to free herself, if she had the chance. All she’d need to do was reach her boot knife, make short work of the ties, and run. Then she’d have to get back to town, contact the sheriff’s office, and have them help her take Sarandon into custody.
He was carrying his rifle over his shoulder. Jake walked beside them, a pack on his back, her rifle and Taser in his hand, her ID and cell phone in one of the backpack’s pockets.
Irritated to the max, Jenna was trying to figure out a way to get all her stuff back. She had no intention of seeing the pack leaders. Trying to take on two male wolves at the same time and forcing Sarandon to return with her might be more than she could handle on her own though.
Yet she was making the attempt the first chance she got. She’d never let her family down before, and she wasn’t about to now.
* * *
Jenna St. James truly was armed and dangerous. Not to mention that she was wearing a bulletproof vest beneath the black windbreaker, and a black fugitive recovery agent T-shirt underneath that. She must have thought Sarandon was really dangerous. She even had a badge, which surprised the hell out of him. They checked her driver’s license and compared it with her badge and her appearance, verifying she was who she said she was.
She still had the wrong man.
She was petite, compared to Sarandon’s height and his muscular build. He guessed the only way she would have been able to get the upper hand would have been to tase him. He was glad he’d taken her down before that.
He knew she didn’t like the idea of meeting with Darien and Lelandi, but she didn’t have a choice. He suspected that if she could, she’d try to get free, take him into custody, and drive him to Colorado Springs. The bond money was too important for her to risk losing him. He didn’t blame her for what she thought she had to do.
“Do you have a sat phone?” she asked.
Sarandon glanced at her. She was scowling again. “In the line of work you’re in, you ought to have one. The guy you’re after could turn out to be really bad news—”
“Like you?” She arched a brow.
Sarandon smiled at her. “Like any of the real criminals you are after. Not like me.”
“I don’t have a satellite phone. Just a cell phone.”
“There’s no cell reception this far into the wilderness,” Sarandon told her.
“Naturally.”
“Well, I’m not the man you’re looking for,” he said. “Which means he’s apparently still out there using my identity. Unless he’s afraid of getting caught, in which case, he’ll be using someone else’s identity.” That made Sarandon want to turn into his wolf and take the guy down permanently. Stealing someone’s identify could cause problems with work, family, and friends—and for a wolf, real trouble if they were jailed. What if this guy impersonated a wolf who didn’t have a whole pack to back him up? And who was more newly turne
d and couldn’t control his shifting?
Sarandon wondered how the real suspect had managed to steal his identity. Was it someone he knew?
He unlocked and opened the door to the cabin for Jenna. She walked inside and glanced around at the living room furnishings, taking a deep breath to smell all the wolf scents left there. A large, velour-covered sofa bed sat in front of a warm fire, comfortable recliners on either side of it. A love seat was in one corner, and big pillows stacked on the floor offered ample seating for several people. Beyond the living room was a kitchen, and a table with eight chairs sat in the dining room between the two other rooms. “The cabins have four bedrooms and we can accommodate six to ten pack members, if we have guests. Like you.”
“Where are the antlers or the poor dead elk head? It’s Elk Horn cabin, right? At least that’s what the plaque said on the door.”
“We prefer steaks on the grill. No dead animals hanging on the walls. No wolves feasting on elk carcasses. Just photos Jake took of the elk in the forests or in the meadows full of flowers.”
“They’re beautiful, Jake,” Jenna said, sounding like she really did admire them.
“Thanks. I’m a photographer. Mostly a wildlife photographer, but lately, I’ve been doing a lot of family portraits.” Jake laid her weapons on the dining room table. Then he pulled out her ID, badge, phone, and car keys and put them next to the rifle. He slung his backpack with his camera equipment over the back of a chair.
“Well, they’re wonderful.”
Sarandon sat her down on the couch, then removed the plastic ties around her wrists and rubbed them gently, knowing the reddened skin would be perfectly fine in a few minutes because of their fast-healing wolf genetics. She frowned up at him. “You could make this easy on yourself.”
“On you, rather? Why would you have an innocent man turn himself in, pretending to be a criminal? It’s not happening. When the police learned the truth, you’d be embarrassed that you’d caught the wrong man, and a wolf at that. In the meantime, you would’ve let the guilty man go.”