My cousin was back too soon. He cleared his throat and I, as careful as I could, moved around to grip her shoulders. Between the two of us, we carried her back to the car. I slid off my tie and balled it up along with my jacket, pinning it between her shoulder and her cheek. It would do for a pillow until we could get her home.
Tommy whined, his ears back at me. I reached out and ran my palm over him from the tips of his ears to the bottom of his tail. He curled up, a wolf pup still, in the footwell of the passenger side. He'd already outwitted Gabe's attempt to buckle him in.
"Your place?" Gabe asked as I climbed in.
I watched in the rearview mirror as Tommy snuck out from the footwell to hop up on Sadie's lap. One of her hands absently petted him. I took a deep breath and let it out.
"Yeah. My place."
Chapter 5
Sadie
I awoke to a large man, who I didn't recognize, sitting beside my bed. His hair was jet black, his skin darker still, and his eyes matched the rest. He was built like he could rip a train in half with his bare hands and he leered down at my sleeping body like he wanted to do the same to me.
Needless to say, I screamed.
Despite the rough look the man inspired, his voice was as soft as satin. "Easy there, sweetheart. Easy. You don't know me yet, but Hudson said to tell you the critters are being taken care of. You're safe, they're safe. It's gonna be all right."
The room I was in was nothing like I'd been in before. Riches bedecked every surface, though they were subtle. It was in the well-made nature of the dresser set, or the fact that the bed I lay in was a four-poster style with actual curtains. Though they'd been drawn aside so the man could keep an eye on me (I assumed), the fabric had the sort of texture that you only saw at the expensive hotels; like the Hilton.
"Who are you?" I asked, drawing the blanket up around my neck. At least I'd have padding if he tried to pull me apart.
He leaned back in his chair and the mere movement adopted a friendlier demeanor. "Xavion Fontaine. Hudson's brother."
"Why am I at Hudson Fontaine's house, Xavion?"
He shook his head. "Damn. He wines you and dines you and he's still that forgettable?"
"Pardon?" I asked, dropping my vowels into the low country drawl I'd been born with.
Hudson Fontaine sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. How long had I been out? What had happened to me while I had been out? Why was this giant of a man watching me until I came around? Had I made a complete ass of myself somewhere, somehow? Questions filled my head until I wanted to scream.
Then a familiar puppy came padding in through the door. He raced toward me, leapt on the bed in a single bound, and rolled himself all over the blanket I lay hidden beneath. I picked him up and tucked him under the covers with me, just in case Xavion wasn't a fan of dogs.
"Yeah, he likes you all right. You're the first one, you know that? Kid's not even all that fond of me and I've known him since he was born," Xavion said, rubbing the puppy's head with his knuckles.
I watched as the puppy grumbled and scooted away from him, unable to keep the smile from my face. He was such an opinionated dog, so strange and different. I reached for him only to have him latch onto my hand and bite as hard as he could.
Blood welled in the corners of his mouth, then he yanked away and slid off the bed. I bit my lip as I curled around my injured hand, trying not to cuss up a storm. It was just impolite when you were in someone else's house.
However, in doing so I was in the perfect position to watch as my skin knitted itself back together. It was over in seconds, completely healed and painless.
What the hell had that rich guy given me?
"I want out," I said, throwing my legs off the side of the bed. "I won't tell anyone. I won't go to the news, but I'm leaving this house right now."
"Little one," Xavion rumbled. "You aren't going anywhere."
He picked me up as if I weighed nothing more than the puppy did, then he put me back into the bed and stroked my cheek. "It isn't safe for you out there."
Oh, God. I'd been kidnapped. There were weirdos in Hollywood, but that was across the country. Did we really have people who liked to, I don't know, murder hapless animal rescue women? Was that a thing? Everybody had their own special stuff that made them twitch just right but that wasn't it, was it?
"If you're going to kill me, you better do it before I start screaming again," I threatened.
A smile split his face, broad and sweet. "No one here wants to hurt a hair on your head. Except maybe the kid, but he's got the right idea of it. Gonna take his dad a little while to come around."
"You mean the puppy. Is he a puppy? A wolf cub? Because people really shouldn't go ownin' wolf cubs, especially if they live in a place like this," I said, waving my freshly uninjured hand around at the finery.
The door opened and the man from before, not-Hudson,
