“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I was in the back of a sleek town car sitting next to the handsome man from the café and loving tinted windows a lot less than I had earlier that evening.
“My name is—”
“Look, I don’t care who you are, pal. You don’t go around sending out your lupine mojo to random girls and then kidnapping them when you get rejected! I don’t care what bit you, that’s just not how it’s done. ”
He regarded me with careful silence for a moment, then ignoring everything I’d said or perhaps because of it, he smiled. “Lupine mojo?” Chuckling, he shared an amused glance with the brunet. “Is that what you think that was? You think you were attracted to me because of wolf magic?” He said the last two words with a sarcastic flourish, spreading his palms wide to mimic casting a spell.
“Don’t flatter yourself. I wasn’t attracted to you. ” My arms were crossed and I was pressed so hard against the door there would be an imprint of the handle in my hip later. I wanted to be as far from him as possible in such a small space. His face was half hidden by the dark interior of the car, so I only caught glimpses of him when we passed under a light. “This next corner will be just fine. ” This was directed to the blond driver, the other man who’d been with him.
“Oh, I’m afraid not,” my objectionable companion replied.
I was steadily going from put out to pissed off. “Please believe that you will be letting me out of this car. ”
“I plan to let you go, no harm done, but there are some things that you and I need to discuss first. ”
“I have nothing to discuss with a man who uses his goons to throw me into a car. Where I’m from, if a guy wants to get to know a girl he buys her dinner first. Kidnapping went out in the caveman era. ”
“Well, perhaps if I bought you dinner…”
“You have got to be kidding me. ” My mouth hung open. I was unable to suppress my shock at the shift in his methods.
“No. I’m entirely serious. ”
“Pull over the car. ”
“Dominick, you heard the lady. Would you please pull the car over?”
“Yes, Mr. Rain. ” There was something forced about the way he said it, like it wasn’t typical for such a formal address to be used between them.
The car rolled to a stop, but when I went to open the door it was—big shocker—still locked.
Continuing the farce of a pleasant conversation, Mr. Rain said, “I take it that you were not close with the one who bit you. ”
“I was never bitten,” I snapped. “Don’t try to pretend like you know what you’re talking about when it comes to me, puppy. You have no idea who I am. ”
“You are wolf, though. I can smell it on you. ”
I tried the door again. So far he was just talking; he hadn’t tried to touch me or move closer. The tangible, electric vibe was still filling the backseat like an invisible twilight fog, and it made it hard for me to be there. The hairs on the back of my arms and neck rose being near him.
“What do you want from me?”
“I just need to ask you a few questions. Perhaps answer some of your own. You seem willfully ignorant of what it means to be a wolf, otherwise you wouldn’t be fighting this so hard. I believe I may be able to put right the negative opinion you have of your own kind. ”
Questions? I had never known what it meant to be a wolf, and sure I had questions. But was I really going to trust a stranger? One who had kidnapped me, no less. Did I really have a choice?
“I’ll answer your questions, on one condition,” I offered.
“Name it. ”
“I get my gun back. ”
From the front seat I heard two very different reactions. Dominick, the short blond behind the wheel, let out an abrupt laugh. I was getting mightily sick of being laughed at tonight. The dark-haired one who was in possession of my gun was utterly humorless. He let out an almost inaudible growl.
“You promise to sit down and have a conversation with me if I return your weapon to you?” the handsome, mysteriously named Mr. Rain asked me. And why did I feel like that name should mean something? I was too distracted to rack my brain for whe
re I might have heard it before.
This guy was good. I didn’t want to agree, but something about the way he was talking to me made it difficult for me to refuse him.