Their Unusual Mating [Paranormal Protection Unit 5] (Siren Publishing Classic) (3 page)

“Uh…” The deputy swallowed. “He’s inside, sir, with the witness collecting a few things for her move to the safe house.”

“Thank you.” He nodded and with hand signals deployed all his guys, except the asshat Jaguar changer, out and around the house. He and the cat went up the walkway to the door and inside. Both of them stopped dead at the scene before them. Girl on her knees peering into a void, showing just a hint of her panties, with the sheriff and two deputies all heads cocked, getting a good look.

“Gotcha, baby girl,” she said and reached into the hole, wiggling slightly and pulling out first one ball of completely midnight-black fur and nuzzled her for a moment. “You gave Mommy such a scare. Now let’s get your brothers. They are the stubborn ones. Of course you being the girl are far smarter and know to come when your momma calls, don’t you, darling?” she asked the kitten and was rewarded with a lick to her cheek which made her giggle. Out of all the hell, this was what she needed, her kittens, their unconditional love.

Grabbing the second ball of fur, a solid white cat, and then a third fluff that looked like a wild cat with its orange fur and black streaks and spots. “There you are, Monkey,” she teased with a smile and hugged him under her breast with the other two kittens before reaching in again for the fourth one.

“Come on, Mercury, get your hairy ass out here,” she muttered and wiggled down even more so she could reach further in. “Ouch, you little shit.” She grumbled but didn’t pull her hand out. Finally she was able to get the silvery-gray kitten from the hidey hole and pull him out.

Finally rising to her feet, she turned to look at the detectives and smiled. “I have…” She then saw them. All of them. Suddenly it hit her just the lovely view she had given these men. “Well hell,” she muttered and looked to the massive men. “Who the hell are you?” Since the detective and officer simply couldn’t get their dirty fucking minds from the gutter she wanted to know who was in her home!

Pulling his ID out again since he seemed to have everyone’s attention finally, Trey nodded to them. “Treasach Campbell at your service, ma’am. Your godmother sends her regards,” he said and looked to the cops, who had been leering at her bottom. “Orders from Mount High.” He handed them over, semi-fake but they’d never figure it out. Thank you, Skittles! “We’re taking over her protective detail from this point out. You are to continue the investigation, and should you require Ms. Coleman for questioning or to testify you can contact us through our offices.” He passed over a card and lifted a brow at the detective. “That won’t be a problem, will it?”

“No, no problem,” the detective said and passed the shield and ID back. “We understand who her godmother is and had expected you.” The detective looked to Charisma. “If we need you we will make the calls. The home that you had been showing is currently being dusted and then the team will come here. We will find whoever did this,”

Rimi nodded and looked at the two big men, holding her babies close. “I need to get a litter tray and litter for my babies as well as food for them. I have a bag for them.” She had a carry bag that was normally for puppies, but she took her babies with her instead. “I also need to get some clothes.” She looked around and sighed. “Well, if I have any that are still intact that is,” she murmured. “Is it all right if I head up to my bedroom?” she asked the men, her face still flaming because of them all seeing her on her knees with her freaking ass in the air. Wonderful.

“Absolutely, Ms. Coleman.” Trey nodded.

“I’ll take the kittens, ma’am,” Tryggr, said holding the carrying case in hand. Taking each kitten, he eased them into the bag. “I’ll keep an eye on them,” he promised.

“Thank you.” She looked up at the large man. “Please make sure to keep a very close eye on them? My babies have been stressed far too much tonight. So please, take very good care of them?”

“Absolutely, ma’am,” he assured her with a small smile and tickled one of the kittens on the chin. They were adorable.

“After you.” Trey signaled up the stairs and followed when she finally moved after a moment’s hesitation. Staying back five steps, he kept his gaze up, mostly because he was mated to the best woman on the planet, and second, the female had already been embarrassed enough for one night.

Walking into her bedroom, or at least what was left of her room, she sighed. Looking around, she wanted to cuss. “Looks like we will need to get more than just litter, food, and a tray while shopping,” she muttered. Walking into her closet, she frowned. “Good lord. Instead of taking the clothes that are worth tens of thousands of dollars, they ripped them to freaking shreds.” It was such a waste. Frelling hell. Tossing her hands up, she shook her head. “I have nothing that is usable here.”

Taking a look inside, he winced. “Well, take a quick look around for anything salvageable, documents, passport, whatever.” Hopefully she’d been smart to put such things in a lock box. “The shopping won’t be an issue. We can do that either locally near where you’ll be staying, or on any number of trips into the base, or via the Net.” Looking around, he frowned slightly and moved to the center of the room, taking a slow spin. Tipping his head, Trey dug out his video camera and began to tape the room. Something looked oddly familiar about the destruction, but he needed someone else’s opinion on that.

“Any documents of importance are kept in my safe deposit box,” she told him. “That includes all of my documentation on passports, birth certificates, and so on as well as my babies’ adoption papers. So there is nothing here.” She sighed then and shook her head. “Why in the hell would someone do this?

“He was there for me. He had somehow hijacked Hector’s phone number so that he could send me a text with that ‘hot sales tip,’ and he was there to kill me, wasn’t he? But why? I’ve never, ever done anything to anyone, so why in the hell would they want to kill me?”

“Not sure, ma’am,” Trey said as he moved to her closet to film the scene there and then into the bathroom. Not a lot of damage, discounting the mirror in a thousand and ten pieces. Continuing to film, he moved through the entire upstairs before looking to her. “Let’s grab your purse and then we will head out, Ms. Coleman,” Trey said, filming even as he went down the stairs, carefully making sure to get all the holes in the walls, even way, way up in the two-plus-story stairwell. Interesting. “Tryg, round up the boys. I’m going to do a quick walkthrough down here and outside, and then we will head to the rendezvous.”

“Got it.” He looked to her and held up the bag. “They’re all currently asleep. I found a clean towel to give them a little more warmth. I hope you don’t mind, ma’am.”

“Thank you,” Rimi whispered and looked down at her babies. “They are so very young, been through far too much.” Looking up at the man, she smiled. “Rimi. My friends call me Rimi, by the way,” She looked down at her contentedly sleeping kittens. Yep, she was the crazy cat lady and knew it.

“Tryggr,” he said, rolling the sounds all together. “Or Tryg, which is easier for most people to pronounce. I’ll answer to either. Roundup time, lads, meet out front. The lady and I are coming out and we’ll be heading to the pick-up zone once Trey is finished filming.” Glancing to her, he waved a hand to the door. “Rimi.” He smiled slightly. “If you would.”

Moving to the kitchen, Trey slowly panned around. “Skittles,” he said to Quincy, their tech guru, “I’m going to be uplinking a video to you as soon as I’m done here and we’re moving to rendezvous. Take a look through it and give me your opinion.”

“Any hints?” Quincy asked him, sounding distracted.

“No, I don’t want to bias you in any way. I have my own thoughts but I want to see what you think without any info from me. We’ll talk when we get back to base,” Trey murmured, easing out of the house into the yard which, in comparison to the interior, was pristine. He knew it would be, but what he wanted was a shot into the windows. He was pretty sure that all signs of disruption would be non-existent.

“Copy that,” Skittles said and covered the mic. “Why don’t you just get up and get it?” he asked with a chuckle.

Shooting him a dark look, Maya said, “Because if I get up I will have to pee and if I have to pee I will want something else to eat.” She rubbed her belly. “Because it seems as if that’s all I do lately, well now that I’m no longer puking my freaking guts out.” She grumbled. “Why don’t you just float it to…well hell.” She looked at her belly. “You aren’t allowed to say the word ‘food,’ darling. I’m freaking starving now and have to pee. Come help me up.” It wasn’t that she was at the end of her pregnancy so much as she was just really tiny beforehand and was now pregnant with a really, really large baby boy.

Laughing softly, Quincy secured his board and got up to go to her. Rounding the desk, he eyed up his gorgeous bond-mate. “You get more beautiful and radiant every day, darling,” he said softly. Taking her hands, he helped her pull herself up out of the chair. Tugging her slightly so she overbalanced and, conveniently, fell into his arms, he kissed her. “I love you, darling mine,” he whispered softly against her lips. Pausing, he winced at Trey’s voice in his ear. “Not you, ass—” He stopped at her warning glare of death and pain. “Twit.” He shrugged. She wanted him to clean up his language. It was like asking a leopard to change his spots. Which she did try with one of the changers. Thankfully she still had both hands and her head attached. Sighing at the laughter in his ear, he let Maya go and picked up the lip balm she’d dropped.

“Thank you,” Maya said with a grin and leaned in to kiss him again. “I love you, too, Quincy.” She then spoke into the comms. “And next time, boys, cut him some slack. Keep in mind that he’s having to deal with an overly hormonal pregnant woman right now, so back off unless you want me to ask Talon to give you boys more reminders of just how to treat a pregnant woman as well as the soft way to tread with her bond-mate.”

Listening for a moment, he shook his head. “They are still hysterically laughing. Don’t think they care this time around, darling.” Dropping a kiss to her lips, he waved her to the bathroom as Trey radioed that they were moving from the house. Easing back behind his computers, he watched his mate’s ass and grinned. He was one lucky bastard.

Moving at a crisp but carefully steady pace for the female, Trey and the others kept their eyes and all their other many senses wide open. It was calculated taking the walk, but he figured she’d been boxed up long enough for one day and would need a little air. “You doing all right, ma’am?” he asked her as he watched her clipping along in her ridiculously interesting shoes. Gods, if only the other guys knew just what having a bond-mate really did. Noticing things like high-end shoes, well-tailored outfits, haircuts—even trims were important apparently—a new doily, new throw pillows, the list was fucking endless.

Rimi was so very happy to be able to have a moment to walk in the night air. Closing her eyes, she breathed in the scents of the night, and then when she heard Mercury crying, unzipped the bag and pulled the little guy out. The others were still out cold, so she zipped the bag back up and stroked her kitten, holding him close as she did so and then dropping him into her shirt after ensuring that no one was watching her. She spoke softly. “It’s all good, sweetheart. No one will hurt you, darling,” she whispered. “We have all these big men here and no one will hurt you, darling, I promise.” She knew it was silly, talking to her kitten, but he needed it and honestly so did she.

When they came upon a field she frowned. “Where are we going anyway?” She wanted to know. It was weird. She hadn’t even asked once where they were going until just this moment.

“Helicopter,” Trey said, pointing to the large black shadow in the field. “Light it up, Harry,” he said and grinned at her look as the helicopter came to life and the blades started to spin. “Duck your head and walk right up to the side panel. We’ll get you and the kittens tucked in.”

She felt Mercury wiggling and winced when the little sharp claws dug into her breast. “Oh crap,” she muttered and pulled the kitten from her shirt. “All right, Merc, you are going back in the bag. I’m sure your siblings are awake anyway,” Rimi dropped him into the case, giving each kitten a bit of love first. “Do you have a large heavy blanket? Something that we can wrap the bag in so that most of the noise is muffled for them?” she shouted when the noise got louder and louder.

Tapping Harry on the shoulder, Tryggr sat down and buckled in as the machine slipped into quiet mode. “Better?” he asked her. The others all climbed in and got strapped in, the doors were shut, and in seconds they were off the ground.

“Yes, much thank you.” And it was much better. It was amazing how silent the helicopter was.

Plugging the camera into the laptop, Trey loaded the video into a file, compressed it, and dropped it onto their secure server. “File’s there, Skittles. Take a look through it and we’ll talk with Bulldog when we get back.” They would all need to debrief, brief though it would be, upon their return.

Leaning back, Rimi asked, “Will I be going to Aunty B’s house?” She didn’t want to take her issues to her aunt, so she would ixnay that one right away. “I should tell you though that you shouldn’t take me there. I love them both so much, but it would kill me if I brought this mess to them. So, I guess that leaves me asking, where are you taking me?”

“Back to our base of operations to debrief and update Talon,” Trey said to her. “Our boss,” he clarified with a grin. “Then you’ll be coming home with me to a nice secure location outside a quaint if slightly bizarre town. The locals are good eggs.” Especially since they’d gotten rid of the drug issues in those parts…mostly. “Katherine is waiting for you there and has likely already gotten your room ready for you.”

“Douglas?” she asked with wide eyes. “You are taking me to Kat? Good lord, I haven’t seen her in years, but I adored her when we were kids. I swear I drove her nuts most times. I would dog along at her heels.” She paused and got a serious look on her face. “And then her brother came into the picture.” She shuddered. “He was a serious, serious monster. I’m so glad that he’s in jail where he belongs.”