Authors: Eve Langlais
Croc and the Fox (2 page)
His mystery lady took one look at the vast green field, the blue sky, and the sunshine. Then, she turned and ran back the way they came, shrieking in terror.
Project ran blindly, her eyes still stinging from the brilliant light in the vast blue sky. Or at least, she assumed it was a sky. While having never seen it before, she’d read about it and scoffed at its existence. Raised in a world with a ceiling she could see and almost touch, who knew such a thing existed? It was even bigger than she could have imagined. And scary.
Unused to so much open space, the air laced with so many smells, Project panicked and did the only thing her frightened mind could handle. She went back to her cell to hide.
But she didn’t flee alone.
The man who’d arrived to her rescue – a tall god with sharp features, a stern gaze and a hard body encased in black armor – followed her. While he didn’t engage her in conversation on their race, he did bark at others, dressed in similar clothes, when they would have stepped into their path.
“Clear the way! Let her through. I’ve got this.”
Bare fleet slapping, her breath coming in harsh pants, Project begged to differ. Scurrying down the stairs, because the elevator would have caused her to stop and wait, she heard the steady thump of his boots as he trailed her. She followed her scent trail through the unknown areas, rooms and hallways, she’d never seen. Arriving at long last at her familiar level, her home, she sprinted the last few yards and dove into her cell. Grabbing her blanket, she ducked under it. Body shivering, she hid, and hoped the man would go away.
“What are you doing?” His gravelly voice sounded right behind her.
She didn’t answer. If she didn’t speak, maybe he wouldn’t see her hiding.
“Do you want to talk about what just happened?”
Talk about what? She was going to pretend the endless sky didn’t exist. It was just a hallucination similar to the one brought on by those mushrooms the scientists fed her once.
“You can’t hide in here forever.”
Watch me.
Trembles racked the woman’s body as she knelt on the floor, her head buried under a blanket. She’d wrapped her arms over it and had her bottom pushed up, revealing the edges of her rounded ass cheeks.
Viktor scratched his head.
What the hell?
One minute, she’d seemed so cooperative, following him like a docile lamb, the next, she bolted like a frightened doe chased by a tiger. Or in this case, a croc.
And all because he’d shown her freedom.
He tried to proceed gently. A victim, she didn’t deserve the sharp edge of his tongue, but dammit, his patience rapidly waned. “My name is Viktor by the way. I’m a FUC agent, and I just want to help you.”
She didn’t reply.
“You can’t hide under that blanket forever.”
“I’m not hiding under the blanket.”
Hunh?
“You know I can see you?”
The edge of the tattered fabric lifted and a golden eye perused him. “You can?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh.” She sat up, crossed her legs and let her fingers play with the hem of her gown. “Hailey said it would work.”
“Who’s Hailey?”
“Cell block seven. She says in the wild, if danger came looking, she just stuck her head in the sand to hide.”
“She did, did she?”
His mystery lady, who seemed to have more screws loose than he first thought, nodded enthusiastically. “Yup.” Her smile fell. “But it didn’t work with you.”
“I doubt it works on anyone with a pair of eyes,” he said with a snort.
“I should have known better than to listen to a bird. The guards are always saying how flighty they are.”
He almost laughed until he realized she meant it quite seriously. “Since you’re not hiding anymore, care to explain what happened outside?”
“I didn’t like it.” Her nose wrinkled in distaste.
“Didn’t like what?”
“The sky. The bright light.”
“Why not? Are you a nocturnal shifter?”
She shook her head.
He frowned, and she recoiled. It annoyed him. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just trying to understand why you’re so
Ah, agoraphobia, a fear of open spaces. “It just seems that way because you’ve been imprisoned. You’ll get used to it.”
She shook her head sending wild locks flying. “No thanks. I’d rather not.”
His jaw probably dropped a foot. “What do you mean, you’d rather not? You have to. You can’t stay in this prison forever.”
Her head tilted and she shot him a curious glance. “Why
not?”
“What do you mean why not?” he sputtered. “This is a cell. Normal people don’t want to live in cells. It’s not right.” “Well I do.”
“You can’t.”
Her lower lip jutted. “Oh yes I can.”
She draped the blanket over her head and crossed her arms, her whole stance screaming stubborn.
“Now what are you doing?” he asked, no longer bothering to hide his exasperation.
“Ignoring you.”
“You’ve got to be freaking kidding me. I order you to come with me.”
“No.”
“You can’t say no. I’m in charge here.”
“We’ve already ascertained you’re not my father, nor a scientist, or a guard, which means I don’t have to listen to you.”
And then she clapped her hands over her ears and began
woman, Viktor leaned down and tore the blanket off. Before she could react, he scooped up the crazy redhead, upending her over his shoulder. She let out a squeak of surprise.
“No.” Arm locked over her thighs, her weight nothing on his bulky shoulder, he exited the cell.
“Where are we going?”
“Away from here.”
“Are you taking me to the labs?”
“Of course not.”
“Locking me in solitary?”
His jaw tightened. “No one will be locking you up, ever again.” Well, unless she broke the law, but he’d let someone else explain that to her when – and if – they ever released her to the world at large.
“So where are we going then?”
“Like I said, away from here.”
“But I don’t want to leave.”
“Too bad. I say you have to. And since I’m bigger than you, what I say goes.” A childish retort for her juvenile arguing.
“This is kidnapping.”
“Rescue,” he corrected.
“You can’t do this.”
“I can and am.” He jogged up the several flights of stairs, ignoring the strange looks he got from the other FUC operatives wandering the place, photographing and boxing anything they found of interest. He also ignored the former prisoner’s demands to put her down. To go away. And to do something anatomically impossible with himself.
“Where did you learn such language?” he finally asked, reaching the top level. The vulgarity of her speech, especially coming from such a delicate looking cutie, surprised him.
“The guards. The doctors. The others in the cells with me. I even know some of them in Spanish. Would you like to hear them?” she replied sweetly.
“Sure, my boys could stand to learn some new ones. Feel free to shout as many as you like because we’re going outside now.”
“No!” she yelled. Viktor stumbled as she buried her face in his lower back and wrapped her arms around his middle, tighter than the anaconda he dated a few years back.
“Can’t breathe,” he joked.
Her grip didn’t loosen in the slightest. Faced with a dilemma, Viktor didn’t immediately exit the building. If this were a soldier, or agent, acting like a great big wuss bag, he would have ignored the terror and thrown them out to meet the source. But, his mystery lady was a victim. Somehow he doubted Kloe, or his coworkers, would approve of him just tossing her into the sunshine given her fear. And, a teensy tiny part of him, didn’t want to scare her further. A tiny part.
What to do? Maybe if he asked nicely, which went totally against all his training, she’d cooperate. “Could you please let go?”
She shook her head against his lower back and clung tighter.
Ordered? “Let me go now!”
Another shake.
Someone behind him snickered. This was getting ridiculous. No more Mr. Nice Croc. “You asked for it.” Viktor slapped his hand on the rounded buttocks nestled so close to his face. The sharp crack echoed loudly as his palm met her barely covered flesh, but he tempered the strength behind the blow. Still, it had the desired effect.
She reared up with a screeched, “Ow!” and he swiveled her off his shoulder and onto her feet. But when she would have bolted, he manacled her wrists with one hand.
It didn’t stop her from twisting and turning, fighting his grip and intention. “Let me go, you bully. You can’t make me go out there.”
“Yes I can,” he stated calmly. He pulled her along, her bare feet sliding on the marbled floor to the glass doors leading outside. She cursed him out. Dug her heels in. It didn’t stop him from reaching the portal and kicking it open.
A shriek left her lips that made his ears ring and she reversed strategies. Instead of fighting him, she suddenly threw herself at him, jumped on his body, forcing him to release her hands to catch her. Freed, she wrapped her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck and buried her face against his shoulder. Short of a pry bar, he doubted he’d get her off.
Sigh.
Why me?
Viktor braced an arm around her middle, leaving his other one free to hold up a middle finger to Mason who laughed his hairy bear ass off when Viktor walked out with his new, red headed, chest accessory.
“Need a hand, old buddy?” Mason asked jogging over to him, eyes twinkling with mirth.
“Nope. Everything is just fine,” Viktor said with a scowl as he stalked toward a parked, black Yukon.
“You going to introduce me to your girlfriend?”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Viktor muttered through gritted teeth.
“Sure she’s not, and yet, I’ll bet that’s the closest a woman’s been to you in months.”
“Are you trying to imply something?”
“Yeah, that you’re a workaholic who needs to get out
happy with my life thank you.” He didn’t need anything more. He owned his condo, which held a large fridge stocked with beer and meat. Possessed a gun collection large enough to take over a small state. Oh, and he had cable. What else did a croc need? Certainly not a woman to muck things up.
Mason could have caught flies with his open mouth. He shook his head. “Scared? Since when do you give a shit? Let’s go down memory lane, shall we? What did you tell me when we were parachuting into that sand lizard terrorist complex? Oh yeah, if you’re going to piss your pants, put on a diaper.”
A grin split Viktor’s lips. “That was different.” “Different how?”
“Because it is.” How, he couldn’t have coherently
explained. He didn’t understand why he allowed the female to continue to cling to him closer than a wetsuit. Not understanding didn’t mean he peeled her off though.
“Oh, wait until the guys from our unit see this.” Mason danced a few feet back and a bright flash blinded Viktor. Before he could tear the camera from Mason’s grasp and shove it where the sun didn’t shine, Mason darted off, laughing like a maniac and waving the device.
Great. Now everyone would see him wearing a woman. On second thought, that might enhance his reputation. Everyone always did say what a cold bastard he was. His last girlfriend, a few years back, said he lacked a pulse. He didn’t, it just beat very slow.
Or usually did. With a womanly shape pressed against him, his heart actually pattered a little faster than usual.
Probably from the jog up the stairs with his burden. He’d have to hit the gym more to make up for his lack of physical endurance.
Reaching the big, black truck with tinted windows, he pulled open the passenger door and saw Jessie sitting in the driver seat, tapping madly on her tablet. She didn’t look up.
“Ahem.”
“I’m busy,” she muttered.
“I need a hand.”
“Since when?” When he didn’t reply, she raised her eyes from the screen. Her lips twitched as she looked him over. “Forget a hand. Don’t you mean the jaws of life?”
“Not you, too.”
She grinned wider. “Oh, come on. It’s not every day I see you hugging someone.”
“I am not hugging her. I am merely making sure she doesn’t fall off.”
An arched brow spoke eloquently of what she thought of
victims, obviously. We need a trauma team.” Maybe some oil to loosen her grip.
“Sorry, Viktor. You just missed the last one.”
“Shit.” Now what?
Jessie set down her tablet and scooted over. She peered at his victim. “I don’t see any obvious signs of injury. Does she need immediate medical assistance?”
He shook his head. “No. I didn’t see any evidence of physical damage.”
“Is she unable to communicate?”
“Oh, she can talk,” he said dryly. “Even if some of what she says is crazy.”
A red mop lifted and amber eyes glared at him. “I am not
sky.”
She squeaked and hid her face again.
“Viktor! That was mean,” Jessie chastised.
“Just proving my point. Now, are you going to help me?” “I don’t know what you expect me to do.”
“Get her off me.”
Jessie chewed her lower lip. “Um, excuse me, miss,
No verbal response but a head shake clearly indicated no.
A shrug lifted Jessie’s shoulders. “I tried. Guess you’re stuck with her.”
“Jessie!” he hissed.
“Viktor,” she aped back with a taunting grin.
“I can’t go back in and command the cleanup with her hanging around my neck like an albatross.”
“Don’t worry about it. Mason’s already taken over. Although, at the time, when he called it in, I wondered what he meant by you ditching the job in favor of dating.”
“I’m going to kill that bear,” he growled.
“Get in line. My dad’s already claimed first dibs. Looks like you’re stuck with your new friend there for the moment. Hop in the back with your honey, and we’ll get out of here.”
“Aren’t you still needed? We did our best to keep the computers intact so you could extract their information.”
“You caught the bad guys completely by surprise. They didn’t have time to wipe anything. Mason established a link to their computer and is uploading the files for me as we speak. I can’t wait to dig into those and see what I can find. Since I don’t need to do any fancy, high tech mumbo jumbo, we’re free to go back to base. But keep in mind, if you’re going to make out in the backseat, keep the clothes on because I don’t want to go