Branded by Lust: 4 (Night Seekers) (2 page)

“This might be a good time for us to experiment with our new
equipment,” Ric said.

Dante Martello nodded. “I’m anxious to see how the
prediction program works.”

“Prediction program?” Mark asked. He stood with his arm
around Chloe. “Is it something that could help find Chloe’s friend Melinda?
She’s been missing for weeks now.”

“I’m going to start testing the new software Craig had
designed for us,” Ric answered. “I’ll use that case and all the information we
have from it to test its reliability.”

Sophia walked up to her sister as Rebecca pushed back from
the table.

“Are you ready to go out like this?” she asked in a low
voice.

“It’s not as if I’m a novice, Soph,” she protested. “How
many years was I on the Maine State Police?”

“I know. It’s just…this is a little different.”

Rebecca gave her a steady look. “I already worked two
Chupacabra cases in Maine. Remember? I’m definitely ready.”

Sophia looked up at Logan who had come to stand behind
Rebecca. “Take good care of my sister.”

“Absolutely.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.” Rebecca gave her sister a hug.
“I’m just sorry this happened on your wedding day.”

“I think it’s become part of the ceremony. It happened with
the others too. Just take care and find this creature.”

“Wish us luck.” She stepped back. “I’d better get moving.”

Ric stood and held out his hand to Logan, gave Rebecca a
light hug.

“
Vaya con Dios,
my friends. Stay safe.”

* * * * *

Logan leaned back in the well-upholstered seat in the luxury
jet, the expensive engines a muted hum in the background. He allowed himself a
brief look at her, enjoying the image of her relaxed body.

I’m sending Rebecca with you.

Craig’s words still echoed in his head. It had taken every
bit of discipline to keep his face blank and simply nod. Did he want her with
him? Oh fuck yes. He wanted her in Montana with him. By his side. Next to him.
In his bed.

Not on the assignment sheet, Tanner.

But he couldn’t ignore the fact that from the moment he’d
met her, when he and Sophia landed in Maine, his cock had been sending him
messages. And the more he worked with her, the more he got to know her, he
realized it wasn’t just lust that was gripping him. Although that was certainly
a big part of it.

No, it was a lot more than that. He’d never believed you
could make an instant emotional connection with someone. A person who filled a
place inside you that you hadn’t even known was empty. But then he’d met
Rebecca and he knew deep inside himself that being alone with her in Montana
would be a real challenge.

On the other hand, what if she felt the same way? He’d
caught a look in her eyes once or twice, a certain smile, almost a silent
message. Did she feel that same connection? That same electricity that fried every
one of his nerves? Was he misinterpreting things because he wanted her so badly?

He watched her now, her eyes closed, catching a short nap
after the whirlwind of preparations, racing for the helo and hauling ass so the
jet could take off. Her soft honey-colored hair curled about her face and fell
to her shoulders. Thick lashes hid eyes that he knew were a brilliant emerald
green and there was a tiny dimple at the left side of her sensuous mouth that
winked when she smiled.

She’d removed her jacket before buckling herself into her
seat and the dark-green sweater she was wearing draped softly over full breasts
that his hands itched to cradle in his palms. Her legs were stretched out, feet
resting on the opposite seat, and he could see the line of her nicely rounded
hips and slender legs beneath the soft wool slacks.

In Maine they’d been so busy with the killings he hadn’t had
a chance to really pursue the situation with her. He’d hoped after they got
back to Desolation Ranch and were debriefed he could take a couple of days of
down time and fly back to Presque Isle. Look her up.

When Clint and Sophia had announced their plans to marry he
realized Rebecca would be coming to Texas for at least a few days. Then Craig
told them he’d invited her to join the team and the opportunity Logan had been
looking for presented itself quickly.

He hated the fact that another body had been added to the
count. But he also was aware it was bound to happen until they found the master
lair of the creature, the humans they were beginning to realize were behind it
and completely eradicated everything. Until they did they’d be following its
trail, as they were doing now.

Tracking the beast was their number one objective. Since the
killings in Maine the team had pulled out the maps of previous sites and
studied them, coming to some conclusions about area and distance. He hoped this
would help them when he got to Montana. With each killing site they gathered a
little more information.

But even though this was a top priority he knew he couldn’t
disregard his feelings for Rebecca. He had to be very careful because if he was
misreading the signs he’d be stuck in a situation that would be uncomfortable
for both of them. Business first, as always. But others on the team who’d been
sent on assignment had managed to find their mates. He was hoping for the same
thing for himself.

He shifted in his seat, the sudden constriction of his jeans
against his cock and balls uncomfortable. If he didn’t get himself under
control pretty soon he’d end up in the bathroom jacking off and how low-class
was that? Besides, as far as he was concerned this was about a lot more than
sex. He’d have to bury the wolf and his animal instincts pretty deep to
approach this properly.

Rebecca sighed in her sleep, her magnificent breasts rising
and falling slightly as she did so, and Logan had all he could do to keep from
reaching over and caressing them. He wanted to span her waist with his hands
and run them down the length of her legs.

Jesus, Tanner. Keep your mind on business.

He looked at his watch. At the speed of the new Gulfstream
G650 he figured they’d be in Great Falls in another thirty minutes. Good. Maybe
the frigid air would get his mind off his dick—and Rebecca’s tempting body.

Rebecca stepped off the private jet at the far end of the
Kalispell airport and turned her collar up against the breath-stealing cold. It
was nothing new to her. She’d grown up in a climate just as cold and desolate
as this. Learned how to protect herself against the biting winds that whistled
through the trees and blew like a wild thing across the open spaces. At the
moment she was glad of the cold air to chill her heated body.

Meeting Logan Tanner when they worked on the killings in
Maine had opened a new dimension in her life. Not that he’d made even the
slightest move on her but she knew the chemistry was there. It sizzled in the
air around them as an almost visible cloud.

She wondered why the others didn’t see it. Sophia had made a
comment or two but Rebecca had simply ignored her. She was looking forward to
the trip to Texas for her sister’s wedding to Clint but then the invitation
from Craig Stafford to join Night Seekers had dropped in her lap out of the
blue. She hoped she’d been able to temper her eagerness when she accepted.

Logan Tanner did things to her without even touching her
that no other man had ever done. At six four he towered over her but she never
felt threatened by his height. He was solid, secure, all hardened muscle with a
square-jawed face that reminded her of cowboy commercials. His thick mink-brown
hair was almost as dark as the chocolate color of his eyes and she had a sudden
itch to run her fingers through it.

But it was more than just hormones and testosterone at work.
Emotions she’d kept carefully bottled up now simmered treacherously just
beneath the surface. Working in a male-dominated environment, she’d been very
careful to keep herself as sexually neutral as possible. Unwilling to be the
topic of gossip, she kept her social life under the radar, which so far had
worked out fine since no one she dated ever had the punch-to-the-gut effect on
her. Until Logan.

She hoped he felt the same thing but mixing business with
pleasure was dangerous if it didn’t work out. Still, this might be her best
opportunity to see if the chemistry between them was real. And something more.

She’d kept her eyes closed during most of the flight,
because looking at him, sitting so close to him, sent all her hormones on a
wild ride and caused her cream to flood her panties. Her nipples were so stiff
just from inhaling the scent of his aftershave as it drifted across her
nostrils she wondered how they didn’t poke through both her bra and her
sweater.

Good lord, Bek. Try acting like a grown investigator
instead of a horny slut, will you? You want more than a casual roll in the hay
with this man, anyway.

She shoved her hands into her pockets and followed Logan across
the tarmac toward the small concrete-block building. As they approached, a man
climbed out of a Ford Explorer and waited for them. When she saw his face she
realized it was the same man from the video message.

“Good to see you,” the man said, holding out his gloved hand
to Logan.

“You too.” They shook hands then gave each other the kind of
backslapping hug that men did.

Logan reached for Rebecca’s hand and pulled her forward.
“Greg, this is Rebecca Black, another Night Seeker. She’ll be my partner on
this. Bek, this is Greg Mattison, my brother-in-law.” He swallowed bitter sadness.
“Julie’s brother.”

“Nice to meet you in person,” she told him. She thought it
interesting that although Logan’s brother was dead and the connection actually
broken, the two men were still friends and considered themselves part of an
extended family.

“Let’s get you in out of the cold,” Greg said, opening the
door of the vehicle for her.

“Is it far to the ranch?”

“About forty-five minutes,” Logan answered. “I’m just the
other side of Overlook. Which, by the way, doesn’t overlook anything.”

The pilot had carried their luggage from the plane and was
stowing it in the rear of the vehicle. He and Logan exchanged a few words and
then they were pulling away from the building and exiting to the interstate
that ran past the airport.

“I checked with John Turner,” Greg said as he maneuvered on
the freshly plowed road. “He said you’d already touched base with him. He’s got
the place stocked and your vehicles in good running order.”

“Thanks for following up,” Logan told him. “And for coming
out to pick us up.”

“No problem. I did have to promise Amy you’d have dinner
with us at least once.”

“Amy is Greg’s wife,” Logan told Rebecca. “You’ll really
like her.”

In Rebecca’s experience, when someone said that about a
person she always wondered why they felt compelled to make such a statement.
And often the person turned out to be someone she was ready to ditch after five
minutes. She hoped that wouldn’t be the case here. It was obvious this was a
tight-knit little group.

“She knows why we’re here?” Logan asked.

“Oh yeah. She’s glad of it. She knows how frustrated I’ve
been trying to get Sheriff Danvers to listen to me.”

Logan made a rude noise. “I can guess just how well that
went over.”

“Did you work with him when you were here?” Rebecca asked.

“Yes. I sort of inherited him when I won the election. He’s
been around forever. Since he was the senior deputy the county commission just
appointed him to replace me until they could hold another election.”

“You’d think after what happened with your brother and
Greg’s sister he’d at least be more open to what you have to say.”

“He didn’t want to believe it that time either. He kept
trying to convince people it was some insane drifter or a wild animal,” Logan
said.

Greg nodded. “A lot of people can’t conceive that such a
beast exists. They’ll search for every other answer first.”

“While more victims turn up,” Logan said, his voice etched
with bitterness.

They had turned off the highway and were following a
two-lane country road now.

“Did Logan tell you he lives out in the middle of no place?”
Greg joked.

“I’m used to it,” Rebecca told him. “I grew up in Maine in a
similar situation.”

It was beginning to get dark now but Rebecca could still see
well enough to make out the vast stretches of emptiness, the mountains ringing
valleys all covered with layers of snow and here and there an isolated
farmhouse or ranch.

“Is Great Falls the only town around here?” she asked.

“Of any size,” Logan answered. “Bittersweet isn’t far from
the ranch but the entire population is less than a thousand.”

“It really is like northern Maine,” she commented.

“I have a folder for you,” Greg said. “The photos I showed
you in our video call plus the sheriff’s reports on both the sheep and the
ranger kills. And copies of the pictures.”

“I meant to ask you about that,” Logan commented. “I can’t
imagine Danvers willingly handing those over.”

“Amy’s brother Ford is a deputy now. You can thank him for
them. I’ll give them to you when we get to the ranch.”

They had been passing land marked by a wire fence for some
time and five minutes later they turned into a long driveway. At its end sat a
two-story house that looked as if all the lights were on. Spotlights in the
yard behind it illuminated another smaller house, a barn and some other small
outbuildings.

“Here it is. It’s not big but it’s all mine.” Logan climbed
out of the Explorer and opened the door for Rebecca, extending a hand to help
her out.

Rebecca put her hand in his and was shocked by the
electricity that sizzled up her arm. She looked at Logan and saw the heat of recognition
in his eyes. The same energy had crackled through his body. He squeezed her
hand then dropped it but it took another few seconds before he shifted his gaze
away.

The door to the house opened as they climbed the steps to
the porch. A man nearly as tall as Logan but rail-thin stood there silhouetted
by the light behind him.

“Damn, but it’s good to see you,” his caretaker said in a
gravelly voice. “You’ve been down south too long.”

Logan laughed. “Just doing a job. Besides, you take care of
everything so well here there’s not much here for me to do.”

“Come in, come in,” he gestured, standing aside so they
could enter. “Eve made a pot of coffee and left a casserole warming in the
oven.”

“Coffee sounds good right now.”

Logan introduced Rebecca, took her jacket and hung it with
his on a coat rack in the hallway and led everyone into the kitchen. With the
easy familiarity of one who had spent a lot of time in this room he took down
four mugs from a cupboard and filled them.

“Bek, I know you take yours black like mine. You guys can
fix yours however you like.”

When they were all seated Greg put the folder he’d brought
in with him in the center of the pine table.

“The pictures are pretty gruesome but they’re nothing you
haven’t seen before.” He looked at Rebecca as if seeking confirmation from her.

“I’ve seen them in person,” she told him. “The pictures
can’t begin to do them justice. The scenes are horrific.”

Logan slid the photos out and spread them around.

John Turner shook his head. “I never will forget when you
found Julie and Jed. No normal creature ever did that to them.”

“And there have been many more killings since then,” Rebecca
told him. “South Texas, Alabama, Maine. Now here again.”

“Seems a lot of territory for one animal to cover,” Greg
mused.

Logan took a long swallow of his coffee. “As a matter of
fact, we’re beginning to think there’s more than one of them. There has to be,
because we have the carcasses of the ones we’ve killed yet more killings turn
up.”

“Our current theory,” Rebecca told him, “is that some madman
somewhere has a huge lab facility where he’s breeding them. Combining the DNA
of different animals and…and humans.”

Greg’s eyes widened. “Are you shitting me? Someone’s
deliberately creating these abominations? And using people as part of the
experiments?”

“The wife of one of the Night Seekers, Chloe Guitron, had a
friend disappear when they were in South Texas photographing landscapes for a
book, right about the time the Chupacabra went on a killing spree there. We
think whoever’s behind this kidnapped her.”

Greg and John stared at her, shocked expressions on their
faces.

“We’ve compiled a history back at team headquarters,” Logan
went on, “documenting as far back as we can the kills of the Chupacabra.
Originally it only attacked animals, and small ones at that. Goats were its
largest prey. Then it began to attack humans and its kill score has been
climbing since.”

“Apparently over the past decade,” Rebecca added. She looked
at Logan. “Does John know—”

“The details of the team?” He nodded. “How and why we were
brought together. Everything.” A look of desolation swept over his face. “He
found the bodies with me so he’s seen the beast’s handiwork up close and
personal.”

“A devil beast,” John spat.

“Its attacks seem to be escalating.” Logan blinked as if
trying to erase images from his brain. “The more we kill, the more pop up, and
with increasing frequency.”

“Hence the breeding theory,” Rebecca said.

“Holy crap,” John said at last. “Well, you know anything we
can do to help you is a given.”

They spent a long time going over the reports and looking at
the photos. Greg had also brought clippings from the Great Falls newspaper.

“They keep trying to say a bear did this,” Logan noted. “But
there’d still be blood around the scene and very little left of the carcass.”

“I tried to tell them,” Greg said, anger lining his face.
“But I should have saved my breath.”

“They’ve got someone coming down from some national wildlife
place to study this situation,” John spat out. “As if they’ll even know what
they’re doing.”

“Well.” Logan shuffled all the papers together and stuffed
them back in the folder. “I think we’ve gone over this enough for tonight.”

“Are you going to try to talk to the sheriff?” Greg wanted
to know.

“Probably. I even brought pictures and reports from the
other killings to show the similarities. But my old boss is pretty much of a
hard head so I don’t think it will do me much good.”

“Well, I wish you good luck. Want me to take you out to where
they found the bodies?”

“No. I appreciate it but you’ve got your own stuff to do.
You left a map in here so we can find it easily. But thanks.”

Greg stood up. “Then I’ll get going. You and Miss Black
probably want to eat some of that casserole and get to bed.”

“Rebecca, please,” she told him.

John rose also. “I’ll get back down to my house. The cattle
are all in the winter pastures now. We’ll be putting out more feed for them
tomorrow but otherwise they’re doing just fine.”

Logan nodded. “Thanks for everything, John. I’ll check in
with you when we get back from our little trek up the mountain.”

Rebecca and Logan ate in a comfortable silence. She didn’t
know what Logan was thinking but her brain was whirling with the fact that
she’d be staying in this house with him, virtually alone, for however many days
they were here. And the sexual energy flowing between them seemed to ramp up
steadily.

“Let me show you where your room is,” he told her, lifting
both suitcases and leading the way up the stairs.

The room he showed her into was large and airy with a big
window that looked out over the rolling pastureland. The bed was a huge
four-poster and like the rest of the furniture looked to be made of rich,
intricately carved wood.

“All the furniture in the house is made from ponderosa pine,”
Logan said when he saw her studying it. “There’s a man in town who makes it
although you have to order it way ahead of time. When I first bought this place
the stuff that was in it was a disgrace. About the only thing in good shape was
what was left of the cattle. I slept on the floor in a sleeping bag for a good
long while.”