Sealed With a Hiss Page 17

  He watched over and over as Jessie walked across the screen. She picked up some fruit. She smiled and waved at Simon – something they would talk about later – and then someone bumped into her, and she dropped her purse.

  He’d found a few other items of Jessie’s under the shelving unit. There was a hairbrush, her keys with the Chewbacca keychain and five pens – she always kept pens on her. He almost smiled as he remembered the time he counted all her pens – twelve in total. Although she assured him at least two had run out of ink. She just kept them for sentimental reasons.

  On screen, everything spilled. The dark clothed, hooded figure who had knocked her stopped and kneeled down to help her scoop everything back in there. Jessie’s face was caught on camera a few times. But the hooded person never looked in that direction. That couldn’t possibly be a coincidence.

  He – it had to be a he judging by the size - pressed something into Jessie’s hand and then they stood up and walked away.

  Jessie froze for a few moments, staring at her palm, before standing up and walking out the store, leaving her basket behind and not bothering to pick up the rest of her belongings.

  What did he put in her hand? Gerry moved closer to the screen. His eyeballs were practically touching it.

  Was it a lipstick? No, she didn’t wear lipstick, her lips were naturally cherry red.

  He watched the tape four more times and, yes! He was sure, whatever it was he gave her didn’t come from the ground; he took it out of his pocket and passed it to her. He barely made any movement, but the light caught his watch and the slight glare highlighted the movement. It wasn’t easy to spot, but it was there.

  “What the fuck?” he muttered aloud.

  Magic – it had to be. Someone had abducted her by magic.

  “Gerry,” said Gunner with the wariness of someone approaching a ticking time bomb. “She just walked out the store.”

  “Without her phone.”

  “She just lost it.”

  “Then where is she now?” roared Gerry. “She wouldn’t just disappear – she wouldn’t leave me!” Gunner gave him a sympathetic look, and Gerry fought his python’s urge to beat the bear to death with the VCR.

  He gritted his teeth and forced himself to appear calm. He wasn’t calm, but he could fake it. “What about cameras on the street?”

  “One of the techs got her leaving but then she went into a camera dead zone, and we lost her.”

  “Something happened to her, what about scents?”

  “Cutter traced her to an alley, but she must have got in a car.”

  “Someone took her,” snapped Gerry in the face of Gunner’s doubtful expression. “Trust me.”

  “Okay. I’ll get her details sent out to other law enforcement to say she’s missing.”

  Gerry called Juliet and quickly filled her in. He could feel the vampire working her way up to arguing, but he didn’t give her the opportunity. “You need to go on TV and show her picture – someone abducted her, and we need to find her. Understand?”

  For once the vampire didn’t argue, even she was in awe of Gerry’s tone.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  No, no, no, she couldn’t allow Gerry to get hurt. She had to warn him that Barry was totally whack-a-doodle. Somehow she had to tell Gerry what was happening. Her squirrel whined as she pulled at her bonds. Perhaps she could shift… But it’d take her a few moments, and he’d grab her before she managed it. She needed to distract him.

  On that front, it was lucky that she was trapped with the most volatile rhino shifter on the planet, more likely to explode than every volcano put together. Goading him into losing his temper and doing something stupid wouldn’t be hard. It was harder to stop him from losing it.

  “You’re not even half the man Gerry is!” she cried.

  Barry smiled almost benignly. “Yes, you already said that.” Distractedly, he fiddled with some kind of surgical instruments. Some kind of incredibly sharp and dangerous looking surgical instruments that most likely played a large part in her immediate future.

  Oh lord! Her beast urged her to try harder. This was a male ready to kill her because he was pissed he was passed over for promotion. The guy obviously had a heck of a lot of buttons, and she needed to start pressing them – pronto!

  “No wonder you’re so jealous of him,” blurted Jessie.

  Barry looked at her, his smile freezing on his face. “I am not jealous of him.”

  Ah, she’d struck a nerve. Time to really dig into it.

  “Of course, you are, why else would you do this?”

  His eyes flashed. “It’s because he ruined my life.”

  Jessie gave him a mocking pout. “You’re jealous. He’s younger, smarter, fitter, sexier…” Her beast could think of dozens of other reasons, but she didn’t have all day. “Naturally you’re jealous.”

  “I am not jealous!” his eyes bulged, and body trembled slightly.

  Mt. Barry was readying to erupt. He wasn’t going to last much longer, and she had just the thing to hurl him over the edge.

  “I’ll bet it’s a penis thing. Having a small one is nothing to be ashamed of.” His face turned bright red, and steam virtually poured out of his ears. “It usually is a penis thing with men your age. Why do you think so many middle-aged men drive sports cars? I’ve seen Gerry’s penis, and he is enormous. Undoubtedly he’s bigger than you.”

  “What?!” Barry roared. His muscles rippled, and his clothes ripped as he almost burst out of them. “Bigger than me? Bigger than me?! Hah!” He pulled his pants down and proudly presented himself to her. “See! Ha! As if that skinny snake could compete with this!”

  Jessie refrained from throwing up but she didn’t hesitate in kicking him in the nuts with all her might. His face crumpled in agonizing surprise, and he dropped to the ground with the grace of an anvil.

  Asshat moron! He should have tied her legs together. And not tying her up with silver was just asking for trouble. Just because she was a squirrel didn’t mean she wasn’t dangerous. And he was a lot smaller than Gerry!

  As Barry writhed on the floor, clutching himself and muttering death threats, she relinquished control and allowed her squirrel to take over. Bones, muscles, organs shrank, her body grew fur and a bushy tail sprouted.

  The squirrel wriggled out of the clothes, far too huge for her diminutive animal form and jumped to the ground, scampering across the room. Barry made a pathetic grab for her, but she skipped around his hands.

  His howls followed her out of the room and down the corridor as she ran as fast as her tiny legs would let her. Seeing in her animal form wasn’t easy. What was otherwise just a normal room to Jessie in her human form, was absolutely enormous when she was a squirrel. It was hard to judge anything when she was so small. She seemed to be running through miles of corridors, but it probably wasn’t much. Perhaps she should stop and shift. Although, she wasn’t necessarily quicker in that form.

  Where the heck was she? A nice, juicy exit would be good about now. There weren’t even any windows. Oh, a door, a door, there was a door! She hurried toward it but leaped back as a huge man dressed in black ran through it, almost trampling her under his enormous combat boots. Hmmm, his scent was kind of familiar. He was running in the direction she had come from, presumably to go and help Barry. He didn’t even see the tiny animal.

  The squirrel looked in the room the male came from. There was another male dressed in black sat at a table in front of, oh, was that a computer? Things were looking up. She could work with a computer.

  She darted inside. The male didn’t even hear her. She was so small and so light on her feet that people rarely noticed her going anywhere.

  There was a computer set up on the table and a few monitors that must be the feeds from security cameras. The male was looking between them. The squirrel gave him a tentative sniff. Uh oh, cougar shifter. The male stilled and his nose wrinkled.

  Jessie shifted, quickly. It was one thing running away from a lumberin
g rhino, but a cougar would just love to play cat and mouse with her. Well, cat and squirrel anyway.

  The male opened his mouth in silent surprise as he saw her, naked and panting in front of him. His yellow-eyed gaze drifted down to her chest, and for a couple of seconds, he hesitated. That was all it took for Jessie to grab the stun gun sitting on the table and zap him. He let out a strangled yelp and collapsed back into the chair.

  Her squirrel mentally congratulated her. She was thankful the stun gun was there. Luck was finally on her side.

  Apart from the whole being kidnapped thing. Under no circumstances could that be considered as lucky.

  Jessie locked the door and for good measure pushed a file cabinet down in front of it. She pulled the body of the cougar to the floor and stepped over him to get to his seat.

  “Okay computer, show me what you have. Wi-fi! Yes, we have wi-fi!” She fist pumped the air, and her squirrel did a little happy dance. “Okay, then, this is going to be easy peasy.”

  She did an internet search to find out exactly where she was. That was all she had to do. She typed into a search engine ‘where am I’ and it told her the location. Yep, she had an address and everything! Wasn’t the internet a wonderful thing? God, she loved computers. She wondered how damsels ever got rescued before it.

  A tingle of hope shot through her body. Taunting Barry, kicking him in the unmentionables and stunning the cougar – all that had been about trying to find a way to warn Gerry that he might be in danger. Fear of her mate - yes, her mate – fear of him being hurt drove her to do all those things she probably never would have been able to do before. But maybe there was a chance that she could get out of this, too. Maybe there was a chance she and Gerry could be together. Her squirrel yipped encouraging, and Jessie giggled with happy excitement.

  The door handle shuddered, and her premature celebration was cut short by icy dread.

  “Mike, what’s going on in there?” called a deep and pissed-off sounding voice. The handle rattled. “Mike!”

  Crud, crud, crud.

  Jessie opened up her e-mail and fired off an message stating her location and the fact that Barry had kidnapped her to everyone in her address book. She asked for someone to hurry up and help her and added three exclamation points just to make sure they realized this was a three exclamation points kind of situation.

  She just hoped Gerry got the e-mail and hurried.

  *

  Gunner held up a hand to some curious shoppers and told them to back off. They weren’t happy, but they did.

  Gerry roared and tore apart some packets of cereal. “Who has her?” he snarled. “Why have they taken her?” Why didn’t they come forward so he could tear them to shreds?

  He needed to destroy something. His beast needed to destroy something. And since he had no idea who had taken his mate, the cereal was going to have to take the punishment.

  A python shifter was throwing a hissy fit, and nobody better get in his way.

  Yes, that’s right. Gerald Sanders, the coldest bastard in the SEA was having a temper tantrum. He who had merely raised an eyebrow after he found out his brother had stolen two and a half million dollars and fled the country had lost it. He who had casually confronted his wife over her infidelity while sipping whiskey was on the verge of a meltdown.

  It was the fear. It was too much for him. He’d never been afraid of anything in his life. But he was afraid of losing her, and he didn’t know how to handle it. It was too much for him, too much to bear.

  He stopped and panted. He trained his black swirling eyes on the polar bear accusingly. Humph, sneered his snake. The bear didn’t even believe anything had happened to Jessie.

  The pimply store manager bravely tried to step forward and ask Gerry to leave the store, but Gunner shook his head. He mouthed the words that they would pay for any damage.

  “What if she’s hurt?” panted Gerry. He looked down morosely at the ground littered with cereal. “What if…”

  “Ah, Gerry,” interrupted Gunner, who was irritatingly playing with his phone while Gerry was losing his will to live. What the fuck?

  “Have you checked your e-mails?”

  “Why the fuck would I check my e-mails?” he snapped as his snake flicked his tail in displeasure. “You think I give a shit about the cafeteria’s fucking specials?!”

  Gunner waved his phone. “Because Jessie just sent me an e-mail. I bet she sent it to you, too.”

  “What?!”

  Gunner summarized the e-mail, “It says, help me, I’m in danger, and it gives her location, it’s about ten minutes from here – with lights and sirens.”

  Gerry lunged and snatched the phone. His eyes eagerly ate up every single word.

  An e-mail? A fucking e-mail for help? He’d laugh if he weren’t so damn worried. She was in danger. He knew it. He knew she wouldn’t just leave. Someone had taken her from him. Not someone – fucking Barry Sayles! The rhino was a dead man.

  “I’ll drive,” said Gunner.

  Gerry called for back up, demanding every SEA tactical team get their asses to Jessie’s location without delay.

  At least, she was alive. He’d spent the last hour fearing the worst. At least, she was okay. And the e-mail had to be from her. His snake warmed as he reread the e-mail. Fuck, even in panic mode she was adorable. Who else would send an e-mail for help and put a sad face emoji at the end of it?

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Jessie finished another e-mail. This one was only for Gerry. Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she tried to tell him everything before it was too late. How happy she was to have met him, how she regretted how little time they had. She wasn’t the most poetic of squirrels, but she had to make sure that Gerry knew how she felt… just in case.

  Barry rammed the door again. It was a pretty sturdy door - she’d give it that. It had stood up to Barry’s rage fueled pounding for over a minute now.

  The cougar groaned and tried to sit up. Jessie grabbed the stun gun and gave him another dose. He made a gulping noise and dropped back down. His head made a disturbing thunking sound as it hit the ground.

  “Sorry, I’m not usually so violent,” she said. But then her squirrel shook her head. “Actually, I’m not sorry – you helped kidnap me.” She kicked him in the stomach for good measure.

  She could hear Barry roaring irately. Her whole body trembled as she looked around the room. There was no way out, not even a window or a vent – the room was flying in the face of every movie ever!

  Jessie bit her lip so hard it bled. For a moment there she really thought she was going to make it out of there alive, but no, it wasn’t going to happen.

  Seconds later an enraged rhino crashed through the door. Jessie squeaked, and instinct kicked in. She immediately shifted to her tiny beast. The enormous rhino trampled all over the filing cabinet, crushing it beneath it’s plate sized hoofs.

  The squirrel darted through its legs making it out the door only to be scooped up by the huge black-clad male.

  “Where do you think you’re going?”

  She chittered at the human male and sank her tiny teeth into his hand. He let out a high pitch squeal, and the asshole threw her against a wall. She dropped to the ground with a thud, whimpering as she felt her shift take over.

  The last thing she remembered was Barry laughing as he walked towards her.

  *

  After a slight tussle, Gerry had managed to get in the driving seat. Gunner frantically growled at him to slow down as he drove down a sidewalk, honking at people to get out of his way, but there was no way in hell that he would. It was a shortcut, and there was no time to spare.

  His python rumbled impatiently as the building came into sight. It was a nondescript warehouse. Thank all that is holy that Jessie managed to send them her location, because there was no damn way that they would have been looking for her here.

  Gerry didn’t even slow down. He drove straight at the entrance to the building. He wasn’t exactly thinking clear
ly - he’d be the first to admit that - but there was no way he was risking a hostage situation. He doubted that would end well. He was getting into that building that very second and nothing was going to stop him.

  “Buckle up,” he hissed at Gunner.

  “Gerry what the fuck?” yelled Gunner as his claws dug into the seat.

  The SUV hurtled through the door. Gerry was out of the vehicle and bolting through the building the second it stopped.

  He could smell her. Her beautiful, sweet scent was marred by blood and fear. His animal yowled at him to hurry. He pounded through the building until he found her. There she was; her tiny body was lying on the floor, bruised, bloodied and naked. That fucker Barry was standing over her with a lecherous grin on his fat, fucking face.

  His eyes widened as he spotted Gerry. A human grabbed at a gun and shot in Gerry’s direction. He was aware of the bullets whizzing past him, and a slight sting on his arm but nothing was stopping him from getting to his mate.

  Gerry roared and grabbed the human, throwing him out of the way. He leaped at Barry, shifting as he went. Barry cried out as he was hit by over twenty feet of a reticulated python. Screw lions, tigers, and bears – nobody knew what pain was until they were attacked by a giant fucking snake who was trying to crush them to death!

  Barry started turning purple, but the python wouldn’t let up. He barely heard the shouts of the SEA agents surrounding them, yelling at him to let Barry go. He’d had his hands around this rhino’s neck twice that year, but finally, the snake was going to finish it. The rhino had touched his mate. He’d hurt his mate. The python had to end him! Nothing would stop him now, nothing! He…

  “Gerry,” came a choking whimper.

  He froze at Jessie’s voice.

  “Gerry, don’t kill him,” she rasped.

  He didn’t move, either to let go or to tighten his grip. The snake watched his mate was trying to get up as a male paramedic knelt next to her.

  No, my mate, mine. He needed to go to her. He needed to make sure she was okay. But the rhino hurt her. He needed to end him. But… his mate needed him more.