“He is really heavy.”
“I know,” Lauren agreed. “I’ll get his feet and pull him out. You climb in the other side and watch his head. I don’t want to bump it when we get him out of the car.”
“Okay.” Amanda laughed. “Are you sure we can’t take his clothes off? It would drop a few pounds off him.”
“I’m sure.”
“Damn. I always wonder if they have tails or any fur hidden anywhere. You know there’s talk that some of them could have those. They could shave their arms and faces to hide some hair issues. We could totally find out.”
Lauren gripped Wrath and tried to ignore Amanda. She was glad the boots were solidly on his feet as she straightened his legs and pulled on him by the ankles. Amanda gripped his arms, kept him from falling out of the car when his ass slid off the seat, and both of them struggled to get him flat and centered on the mattress.
“I should get to keep him since I think I just threw out my back and I’m going to need someone to take care of me.”
Sweat trickled down her body and she knew it would only get worse when they had to lift him up the stairs. There were only three steps but it seemed an impossible task. Lauren kicked her shoes off and out of the way. She leaned down and grabbed the sides of the tarp and lifted.
Amanda grabbed the other ends and stared down at his face. “He’s really good-looking. What color are his eyes? Do you know?”
“Dark brown and beautiful,” Lauren grunted, pulling on Wrath. “Don’t get attached. He’s taken.”
“He’s got a girlfriend? Damn! Why is it that all the good-looking ones seem to be taken or gay?”
They managed to get Wrath up the stairs by protecting his back with the mattress and turning the tarp into a hammock. Both of them collapsed to their knees when they reached the living room, after dragging him from the kitchen into the bigger room.
“I’m not taking him upstairs,” Amanda swore. “Stick a fork in me. I’m done.”
“Me neither. We’d never make it.”
“He looks good right there next to the coffee table. The wood matches his tan.”
Lauren struggled to her feet, got them bottled water from the fridge and passed one to her best friend. It was a warm day and lugging around Wrath had exhausted them both.
“I have an idea,” Lauren announced. “I’m going to use your phone.”
“Help yourself. Forget taking off his shirt. I’m too worn out.” Amanda lay back on the carpet. “I’ll just die here for a while.”
Lauren walked to the bar that separated the kitchen from the living room and sat down on the barstool. She reached for Amanda’s phone and dialed information. She groaned when the automated voice answered.
“Damn automation,” she muttered. She gave them the city she thought was right and the state. “NSO,” she said clearly. She repeated it. She was put on hold for a person.
Lauren asked for the number of the NSO. They didn’t have a listing. She asked for the number by their full name. “It’s the New Species Organization.” They found the number and she wrote it down and dialed.
A man answered. “NSO Homeland. How may I direct your call?”
Lauren took a deep breath. “Hello. My name is Lauren Henderson. I didn’t know who else to call but I have a New Species man in my friend’s living room about ten feet from where I’m sitting. He’s been shot with some kind of dart and he’s out cold. I need you to send help for him.”
There was silence on the other end of the line for a few seconds. “It’s against the law to make crank calls to us, female.”
“This isn’t a crank call. His name is Wrath and he’s living at headquarters. That’s all they referred to it as. I was taken by him yesterday because he said I was working with someone who used to be an employee for Mercile Industries. We went into my office today to try to find the person he’s hunting but it turned out that almost everyone in the office seemed to work for Mercile. They shot him with some kind of drugged dart. I got him out of there but I—”
The man cut her off. “You said his name is Wrath?”
“Yes.”
The man growled. “I have a list of all New Species right in front of me. There is no one named Wrath. Female, if you ever call here again I will send the police to your home. We have your address right here. Any incoming calls are immediately traced.” He recited Amanda’s address. “Never call here again.” He hung up.
Lauren clenched her teeth. She turned her head to stare at Wrath. He was definitely New Species. She dialed again and the same man answered.
“Listen to me, whoever you are. I’m looking at him. He’s right here in the living room. Please send someone to arrest me because when they get here they are going to take one look at him and know I’m not lying. He’s been shot with a dart and he’s unconscious. He needs help, I’m worried about him, and have no idea what was in that dart. I was told not to dial 9-1-1 so I haven’t. They took two more of your people, are holding two women hostage and hurt a man named Brian. He was bleeding in an alley.”
“Who did this to the male and those others you mentioned?” He sounded bored.
“My boss and some of my coworkers. They took two of your people at gunpoint and were going to put them in the courtesy van my company owns. They—”
“Don’t call here again, damn it. Call a head shrink.” The man hung up.
“Fuck!” Lauren hit the top of the bar.
“He didn’t believe you?” Amanda lifted her head.
Lauren was pissed. “No. He hung up on me again. I wish I knew where headquarters was but I wasn’t paying much attention when we left there.”
“Well, all you can do is hope that whatever they shot him with wears off soon and then he can tell us what to do.”
Lauren pushed off the barstool and walked toward him. She sank down on her knees and put her hand on his chest while she studied his face. She removed the glasses with gentle fingers, stroked his cheek and hoped that he’d wake soon.
“I hope it was just a sedative. What if it wasn’t?”
“We’ll watch him and if he stops breathing or something, we’ll call for an ambulance.”
Lauren nodded. She shifted her body, getting comfortable, to stay by Wrath’s side. She wasn’t about to let anything happen to him.
* * * * *
Saturn shook his head, trying to shake off his anger. Didn’t humans have anything better to do than screw with him? He got a bunch of crazy calls every day. An hour before a female had called to see if she could hire a Species to be present at her child’s birthday party as if one of them would visit just to entertain children. The call before that was from a man saying he wanted to marry a Species female. Now a female was calling to tell him someone in a courtesy van was kidnapping his people and she had one of them in her living room. He snorted.
“Bad day?” Tiger, his supervisor, smiled.
“I hate phone duty,” Saturn admitted. “Humans are crazy.”
Tiger nodded. “I know. I can never decide if the ones who call to tell me to die are worse than the ones who call and ask me if they can get a ride back with us to our home planet.”
“Direct line, Tiger,” a female Species called out. “It’s Tim Oberto and there’s a problem.”
Tiger cursed. Four—no, three—of his Species males were working with Tim’s task force. He prayed there wasn’t another issue. One of the males had already turned out to be unstable and unfit for duty. He hoped another one of them hadn’t cracked under the pressure. He walked to the phone and lifted it to his ear.
“What is wrong?”
“We have a big fucking problem. One of my men and all three of yours have been taken. We’re tracking two of your men and our man at this moment. They had their uniforms on and they are tagged. We’re in pursuit and we should have them at any time unless they are stripped of their clothes. Unfortunately one of your men wasn’t wearing his uniform and didn’t take a tracker. We have no idea where he is, Tiger. He’s off radar unless he’s with the others.”
“Son of a bitch. Which one is missing?”
“Wrath.”
Tiger frowned. “Who?”
Tim sighed. “You called him 919. I ordered them to pick names and that’s the one he chose.”
“Wrath?” Tiger pushed back anger that something had gone wrong and fear for the safety of his males. “What happened?”
Tim quickly explained what the mission had been. “The woman called in on Brian’s phone to alert us all hell was breaking loose. Brian is one of my men assigned to your guys. She’s in the wind too now, wasn’t on scene when we arrived, and to be honest, I’m playing catch-up. Your men didn’t run this by me first or I would have sent more backup, Tiger. I just pulled the damn notes Brass made so I know what the hell was going on and who this woman is. No one was there when we got to the address. The entire office was abandoned. We found our SUV around the corner and some blood on the ground where she said Brian was injured.”
“You think the woman stole them?”
Tim sighed. “She alerted us to something being wrong. Otherwise we wouldn’t have known to activate their tracking devices until they didn’t report in. That would have been a few hours. We’re assuming she’s friendly at this moment and was taken with the team.”
“Got it. So a human female is missing too? What is her name? Did 358 pick a name too?”
Tiger wrote it down. “I’ll alert my people. Maybe whoever has them wants a ransom. Call me back the second you close in on those signals.” He hung up.
Tiger spun and raised his voice. “Everyone, we have a situation. We have three missing Species males, a human male and a human female. Our males were on a retrieval mission with the human male driver from the task force and a human female who was helping them locate the target. Our men missing are Brass, 919 and 358.” He paused. “Sorry. They picked names. 919 is going by Wrath and 358 is going by Shadow.”
Saturn suddenly cursed and stood. “Did you say Wrath?”
Tiger fixed his gaze on Saturn.
“Would the human female’s name possibly be Lauren?”
Tiger strode across the room toward him. “Yes. Lauren Henderson.”
“Shit. She called us but I thought she was a crackpot. I hung up on her twice. She’s got Wrath and wanted us to help him but I didn’t believe her.”
* * * * *
Lauren grew more alarmed as time passed and Wrath didn’t wake. She had borrowed clothes from Amanda, changed into something more comfortable, and stayed by his side. Amanda had tried to convince Lauren that he’d rest easier if they removed Wrath’s shirt. Lauren shook her head at her best friend.
“Give it up. We’re not stripping him down.”
“But he’d be more comfortable.”
“Not when he woke up and needed a shower from you drooling all over him.”
“I’ll get a drool rag and tie it around my neck.”
Lauren laughed. “For the last damn time, no! You aren’t taking his clothes off.”
“You removed his boots.”
“Well, that’s just his feet. He’s sleeping. No one should do that with their boots on.”
“He’s got big feet and hands. Think that saying is true?” Amanda grinned.
“It is in his case.”
Amanda’s eyes widened. “You peeked when I was changing, didn’t you? God, you’re such a bitch. You are supposed to do everything with your best friend.”
Lauren hesitated and decided to just tell her friend the truth. “I didn’t peek while you were changing. I’ve showered with him.”
“No! Get out! You’re lying just to make me jealous.”
“We spent last night together.”
Amanda let her eyes roam up and down the man on the pink inflatable mattress. Her gaze returned to Lauren. “You are my hero, girlfriend.”
Lauren stood and entered the kitchen. “I’m getting hungry. How about you?”
The doorbell rang. Lauren instantly felt fear as she spun and her gaze flew to Amanda’s. “What if it’s the jerks from my work?” she whispered.
Amanda hesitated, paled, and whispered back, “How would they know where I live?”
“We work in real estate. Duh! We do title searches all the time.”
“Do they know my last name?”
Lauren shrugged.
Amanda rose to her feet and tiptoed closer to the door. “I’ll peek.”
Lauren grabbed the largest knife in the kitchen and a rolling pin. She ran for the door too, ready to do battle if they tried to break down the door to steal Wrath. Amanda frowned and glanced at the things Lauren gripped in her hands, before rising up to peek out the tiny hole in the door. Amanda jumped back, spun, and looked terrified as she met Lauren’s gaze.
“Two really large men wearing all black with sunglasses are out there. They look huge,” she whispered.
“Lauren Henderson?” The male outside spoke loudly. “You called the NSO. We are here as you requested. We know you aren’t a crazy female anymore and we’ve come for our male. Will you please allow us in to see Wrath? We mean you no harm.”
Lauren eased closer to the door, rose on tiptoe and peered through the tiny hole. The two men were really large but the glasses and prominent bone structure assured her they weren’t trying to trick her. She dropped back.
Amanda gave her a questioning look.