Their Improbable Mating [Paranormal Protection Unit 3] (Siren Publishing Allure) Read online

  “True,” Sully said and put on comms to talk to Bulldog. “Bro, we’ve got the fucking Marines at our door. No, I’m not kidding, the Marines. Yes, the United States Marine Corps.” He rolled his eyes. “Why the hell would I make this shit up? Like I could have honestly come up with this tale. Look, get on the horn with whichever bigwig is in charge of these douchebags and tell them to fuck off or I’m pretty sure Allister is going to need a shit load of antacid when we get back. He’s found his mate and isn’t exactly in a forgiving mood.” He caught the look of the others. “Seriously, you’re all that dense?”

  “But she’s a fucking kid,” Rainier said with a glance from the girl to Allister and back again. “Al, you are like a fucking brother to me, but she’s a kid,” he grumbled and shot a look to Sully again. “She’s not even fucking legal in any sense, no way,” he said and looked at the asshat who tapped on the window with a drawn weapon. Rolling his eyes, he growled. “Fucking humans. More goddamn trouble than they are worth, all of them.”

  “Open the door,” said the man dressed in black head to toe. “Give us the girl and we will let you go on your way.” With a tag of course, so that the secondary team could pick them up. Their objective was the girl. Getting her to safety was their one and only mission.

  “She’s my mate and if she’s not legal then I’ll wait,” Allister said and looked up, his Dragon very clearly in charge of things. “But she’s mine.” He breathed out, the temperature in the car notching up several degrees with that single breath.

  “Dude, get some breath mints,” Mac gagged from the front and waved a hand before his nose.

  “Seriously, Talon, these assholes mean business. They are all cranky and weaponed up. Allister is about one step from going Godzilla in the car, a vehicle we are all currently trapped in with him. Yes, I know you won’t get the deposit back if he does. The fact we’ll all be squished is actually my more immediate concern. What?” Sully paused and grinned. “All right, one second.” Passing the comms piece to Mac, he shrugged. “Give them the phone, please.”

  Staring at Sully like he’d gone off the deep end, Mac shrugged and rolled the window down. “Yo, dude in charge of this asshattery, someone on the phone for you.” He held up the comms and wiggled it. “And he really hates waiting, so step to it, Marine.”

  Taking the unit from the man after his second slid up into place, he held it to his ear. “Go.” No rank, no name. Just “go.” “Don’t know who you are, don’t fucking care. We have our orders,” he added. “And we do as we are fucking told.”

  “Uh-huh, listen, gidget,” Bulldog said as he speed-dialed the White House. “I’m about to conference in someone that outranks every motherfucking one of you and every motherfucking one of your bosses and their bosses and…well, you get my point.” He put the other phone to his ear. “Hi, Clarice, is he in? I just need him for like two seconds on a quick conference call. Thanks, doll,” he said, and when he heard the voice, he connected the two calls. “Marine, I’d stand at attention for this phone call. Mr. President, if you would please,” he requested.

  The marine did actually stand to attention and then said, “Sir, yes, sir.” He listened again and then said, “The female that they have in their custody is Jacqueline Setter.” He paused. “Yes, sir, General Setter’s daughter. Yes, sir, the one and the same. Yes, sir. Absolutely, sir.” He nodded and listened and then passed the comms back. “We are to give you air support to take Ms. Setter to the nearest hospital. Her father is on his way now.” He said, “And those are orders from the president, by the way, so no cutting anywhere but the closest hospital.”

  Taking the earpiece, Mac handed it into the back to his brother. “Aren’t you just Susie Sunshine, darling,” he said and rolled up the window. “Nearest hospital according to G.I. Sunshine there,” he told Aidan as Sully got back on with Bulldog.

  Sully slipped the comms on and spoke. “Right, uh-huh, right. Does he know what she…? Right, understood, boss, see you then.” He disconnected and looked to Allister before looking around to the others. “This could end up complicated, lads. We’re to go in with zero weapons and our most pleasant selves. Oh, and Bulldog has requested that no one eat any of the bloody Marines. Apparently they leave a fishy aftertaste.” Sully shrugged.

  “All right, so since no one else is asking, just who the fuck is she?” Rainier asked as he leaned back, looking at the girl that just sat there like a ghost and then his friend, Allister. “Other than Al’s mate, that is,” he amended before his head was torn from his damn shoulders. “Because I’m sorry, but no Jane Q. Public would have a fucking Marine team coming for them, none.”

  “Well, from what I was able to garner from the marine practically wetting himself, she’s some bigwig’s daughter,” Mac said with a shrug. “Hell, ask Skittles. That boy knows more than all of us put together on things that to this day baffle me.”

  “Good point.” Aidan held out a hand for the comms and brought it up once it was in place. “Skittles, my lad, have you been eavesdropping on everything? Right.” He shared a look with Mac, “Observing from a distance. Besides the point. Who’s the girl?” he asked and listened for a long time and then burst out laughing his ass off. “Are you fucking shitting me?” he snarked and laughed even harder.

  “Right, no, that’s all good shit.” He snickered, wiping at his cheeks. “Gods damn you, bro, you definitely know how to pick them,” he said as he drove through the dark. “You have there before you Ms. Jacqueline Samantha Setter, age twenty-two, which makes her legal in all the states and pretty much every country on the planet,” he added for Rainier’s benefit. “Her father is General Jackson Setter, none other than the secretary of defense. Yup, same guy that sits on the president’s side with his hand on the trigger to all the big nasties they have out in the desert and wherever else. She is also grade A, one hundred percent human and smarter than the lot of us put together. Yes, Rainier, I was counting you in there,” he said.

  Jackie winced when her father’s name was brought up. Her blood pressure spiked, and she heard her boss again. “Calm down, Jackie. The general will be at the local hospital waiting on you, doll. His jet is already on the way and you know that man will let nothing stand in his way. Just calm down, doll. Evidently these are good guys, so we have to stick with them for just a bit. Just be calm, honey.”

  Closing her eyes, she swallowed hard, the sound carrying back to base and to her boss. She wondered why the big guy would have quantified her as being “one hundred percent human” in his explanation of who she was, and why did it feel so nice to have the large man who had cleaned her face of the circus-clown fucking makeup wrapping his arm around her and pulling her closer?

  Wrapping his jacket around her, Allister shifted her so she was laying down more, her head on his one thigh. Taking Sully’s jacket, he draped it over her legs and gently stroked her hair.

  “Well you have yourself one hell of a quandary here, bro,” Aidan said, shooting a look into the mirror as they drove through the middle of Buttfuck, USA, toward the nearest piece of civilization with a hospital. “I’m thinking that the general is going to have issue with a Dragon mating to his one and only daughter. Not saying it’s impossible, but I’m pretty sure your bond-mate might be ticked at you for a long time if you fricassee her father.”

  “Shut up, Aidan, she doesn’t need to listen to you yammering all the way to the hospital,” Allister said quietly. Stroking her hand gently, he shot his brother a warning look. Yes, they had to make it known to human mates just who and what they were and the world that the human would now be a part of. But she was also drugged to the nth degree. Not the time for that discussion.

  “Okay, seriously.” Mac turned around with a frown. “I keep hearing this weird yapping sound. Like one of those little terrier dogs, but from like behind a big chunk of glass, very distorted and slightly muffled. Are you telling me no one else is hearing it?”

  Flipping off his brother because he could, Sully dug out a scanner a
nd looked to Aidan, who shut off the radio. Turning it on, he swept it around and near her. Once it reached her jaw it went through the roof. “She’s wired up, internal earpiece and mic set into her jaw I’m betting from these reads,” he commented. “That would be where your yappy terrier is coming from, bro. L’Aurette must have had jamming technology in place around the women, likely just in case a cop slipped in with a wire or transmitter.”

  Jackie closed her eyes. They were close. She just wasn’t a cop. God, her father was going to have kittens! She frowned then and listened, replaying the words spoken over in her mind, and tried to find what it was that was making her senses wig out.

  “So then she’s a cop?” Rainier asked the obvious. “But we would have known if there was a mission going on. Skittles would have found any mission on the books.” He paused and then asked, “Skittles, what about white ops?” A sick feeling in the pit of his stomach came up. “Yeah, I know they are a bitch to try to find, but dig in her background. Something’s missing.”

  “You boys really like to challenge me, don’t you?” Skittles asked as he popped some of his moniker’s namesake into his mouth. Turning, he got to hacking through the various systems. Reaching out blindly, he turned on some music to help him think and frowned. “Well, she’s buried, buried deep,” he murmured, spinning around to go at things at another angle. “Hell, the fact that I got what I did tells me that they’ve practically stuck her under the mountain to keep who she is and related to so far off the radar that it’s a miracle l’Aurette didn’t charge us more money. By the way, on that front, as soon as he confirmed the funds he split everything up and sent it to five more accounts, which then split the money again to five more each and so forth. He’s just now starting to bring it all back together. I should have his main account in the next ten to fifteen at the rate it’s currently bouncing around the globe.”

  “Just get to the fucking point.” Rainier growled, the Panther crawling just under his skin. “What fucking agency does she work for?” he demanded and looked to the woman who was curled trustingly against his friend’s knee. And she was a woman, a very svelte and petite woman that goddamn didn’t look older than fourteen fucking years old. “Because something tells me that her old man will be waiting with even more fucking firepower when we get to the hospital, and not even Bulldog with his connections could stop a father from his daughter. We all know that really fucking well.”

  Chapter Four

  “Well, ladies and gents, we have ourselves a winner,” Skittles said, sitting back as he stared at the screens. “The lady of the hour works for Sector Thirteen, so deep under the rug that I’m pretty sure they have a view of Asia out their front windows. These guys are seriously interesting, I have to tell you. They can literally pop up anywhere in the world and take over an investigation. Not only that, but apparently they have creds for each and every agency in the world. Not just the Feds here, but Interpol, German police, you name it, they are hacked into it. They do the dirty jobs apparently and are all super well trained. Your gal there is SEAL trained along with a bunch of other nasty stuff. I think she could take the lot of you blindfolded and one hand behind her back.”

  How the hell had they found that out? Jackie thought to herself, more of the drugs pushing out of her system and onto her skin through her sweat. She touched the comms unit at her throat again, thankful for the jacket covering her, and tapped out a series of taps that were Morse code.

  “I don’t know, doll, but we are working on it,” came back in a whisper to her. “We are trying to figure out who they are, babe, but know you’re in good hands. The president vouched for them and you know that old bastard wouldn’t vouch for his fucking mother if he wasn’t a trillion percent sure that she was absolutely clean. You are only about three minutes from a hospital. Soon, babe. Soon.”

  Tapping a response to him, she was actually grateful that these men had begun the IV on her. The IV was helping her body more rapidly process the drugs out faster than it could on its own. Not fast enough but pushing them all the same.

  Capturing her hand, Allister stared down at her. “We’re the good guys, Jacqueline, so you can just rest until we get you to the hospital and quit pestering people that don’t have clearance to know about us.”

  “Morse code?” Rainier asked and shook his head at the nod he got in return. “Women,” he muttered under his breath.

  Gently putting her hand down, Allister kept stroking her hair. “Do we need to know anything else, Skittles?” he asked quietly.

  “Just that her father is pulling out all the stops. You guys will have one hell of a reception waiting at the hospital for you.” He shook his head as he kept digging down. “Oh, nice,” he muttered, pulling up her boss’s profile. “They have a few big wigs in the unit, I have to say, names I actually recognize. I’m impressed,” he commented. “Course they seriously need to work on their firewalls, but I’ll offer my services after I’ve cleaned them out.”

  Jackie rolled her eyes but felt the comforting touch again. Forcing out a whisper, she whispered, “Jackie.” She hated, with an absolute passion, to be called Jacqueline. It pissed her off, got her to seeing red, and that usually got her into trouble. Closing her eyes, she was shaking. Amazing how just saying one single fucking word wore her the hell out. Shit, how could they have gotten into her company’s databases? No one should be able to get into them. They were built with layer upon layer of encryption. He might have said they were the good guys, but right now she couldn’t tell a good guy from a bad guy, and until she could, she wouldn’t feel at ease. Dammit, she shouldn’t at least, but the big man touching her was making her body and soul relax and calm in ways that she never had before. Gods dammit to hell and back again!

  “Jackie,” Allister murmured quietly, running a finger down her cheek. Smiling faintly, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. It had been a long couple of days and he was feeling the strain.

  “Oh, hello, darling,” Skittles said with a smirk clearly heard in the vehicle. “You should see some of the toys they have, you guys. You would seriously be jealous if you actually cared about such things.” He grumbled the last part. “I do have to wonder though. You’d think that they’d have some of the better encryption on the planet and yet all I’m seeing is, at best, third-rate crap. Hell, I wrote better at the age of five than what they have. Whoever sold them on this seriously needs their heads examined.” No wonder he’d broken through it so fast.

  “They’re the US government, Skittles,” Mac pointed out. “Clandestine or not, they all get pretty much the same stuff, just different numbers tacked on the end to make it sound better than the stuff the others got.”

  “Good point,” he murmured, popping more candy. “All right, you guys are clear into the city. There’s an accident on Fifth so you need to cut across Main and take Liberty to get to the hospital. Other than that, I’m outta here, lads, and I’ll check in to see if you need bail money. Peace!” The links went dead quiet.

  Chapter Five

  Bright lights assaulted her, her stomach turned, and she knew that she was going to be sick. Lowering her lashes, she saw the white-coated doctors and blue-scrubbed nurses racing around the room, the anxiety in the room higher than she could believe was even possible. Closing her eyes again, she heard herself moaning and being turned onto her side, as she was once more stripped of her clothing, and then felt the warmth of a heated blanket pulled up and over her body.

  When she heard her father’s voice, the dams broke loose and tears fell in choking torrents. “Daddy.” It was whispered so softly that she wasn’t sure anyone would have heard, but he seemed to zero in on her and then start to argue with the massive men that were blocking everyone but doctors from treating her.

  Closing her eyes, she tried to find it in her to talk again but couldn’t. It was everything she had just to breathe.

  “Does anyone know what she’s been dosed with?” she heard one of the medical staff demand even as blood was drawn f
rom her.

  “We just got the analysis back from our labs,” Rainier said, handing over a data pad. “That’s what they found in the cocktail along with ketamine,” he told the doctor asking the questions. “We gave her a straight saline drip on the way in since we didn’t want anything possibly causing any side effects.”

  Jackie’s father paced and looked at the men that were gathered. It looked as if the military took up residence in the ER. The entire floor had been locked down because he was there and because his daughter was there. “How the hell did this happen anyway? How could a fucking writer become embroiled in this shit?” he demanded. “And I want to know who the fuck to ‘thank’ for getting my baby into this goddamn mess.” He was ready to rip someone’s head off and shit down their throat.

  “A writer?” Mac asked and snorted. “I don’t know if that’s the party line you tell everyone or if you honestly don’t know what she does for a living. Which, given what you do…I’m voting for party line, anyone else?” he asked, raising his hand and got four more from their Team. “Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. Besides, I can smell the bullshit just pouring off that load of crap you’re trying to serve us, General. Nice try though, especially with all the civvies running around.”

  Getting up into the man’s face, the general growled. “Don’t fuck with me,” he said and then turned on his heel, moving back to the door where his daughter was. “As far as I knew she was just a writer for the fucking Tribune.” Which was the goddamn honest truth. Never had he dreamed that his daughter would get into something like this. What the hell was she thinking? “And that’s the fucking truth. If you smell bullshit, you need to check your fucking shoes,” he added and looked back into the room at his little girl who looked so small buried under the blankets as she was. “I want who she reports to, everything,” he said to his attaché, who was twittering around nervously like he had swallowed a boulder and like he had a secret to keep.