Chapter Four
“Tell me about those Tasers,” Logan prompted Thea after they finished eating. He had quickly whipped up a bowl of spaghetti with sauce from a bottle when he had heard Thea’s stomach growl, to her utter embarrassment. She told him she hadn’t eaten since early that morning, and even then it was just a granola bar and coffee. He’d see about taking her out for a proper dinner date once her sister was rescued and Leon, along with his goons, were taken care of.
Thea walked over to the couch to grab her handbag and brought it over to the dining table. She took out the pink Taser and placed it on the table before reaching back into her bag and producing another one in black. She pressed her lips together, and then dug into her bag again. This time she produced what looked like a lipstick, followed by a perfume bottle, and several pens.
“These are all Tasers?” he asked incredulously.
She nodded.
“What, you don’t have any disguised as tampons?”
“Nope,” she said. “The tampon is just a tampon, I’m afraid.”
Logan was still shocked at what he had seen at the cabin earlier. “I’ve never heard of a Taser having any kind of effect on a shifter, let alone incapacitating them for quite a lengthy time.”
She took a seat opposite him. “That’s because it’s something Teresa and I have been developing together for years. We discovered that even after the twitching stops, the body feels weak from the extreme disruption of the dual nervous system … man and beast, if you will.” She paused, as if gauging his reaction. He nodded for her to continue. “My sister is an engineer. She works for a company that develops mechanical prostheses. I’m her research assistant and this”—she gestured toward her weapons on the table—“is our little side project.” She pointed to the pink Taser. “This one delivers the most power.” Pointing to the black one, she continued, “This one here is almost as strong as the pink one, but you can shoot it from up to fifteen feet away from your opponent.”
She then went on to explain that the lipstick Taser, which was also as powerful as the pink one, had to be used at close range, while the perfume-bottled one could be used at a distance. The benefit of them both was their discreetness. If she had been captured and searched, and the lipstick were in her pocket, it could have easily been overlooked and remained in her possession.
Fucking brilliant. “And the pens?”
“They mostly just stun. Come in handy if you need to question someone.”
Logan was thoughtful for a moment. “This kind of power … I’m guessing it can obliterate a human.”
“We’d never use it on one,” she said defensively.
“I know,” he said, holding up his hand in placation. “I’m not accusing you of that. I’m simply saying that to be able to figure out the right amount of power to bring down a wolf shifter, you’d need to test it on one.”
Logan could see that she understood what he was getting at. Thea bowed her head and bit her lip, clearly unhappy with how she and her sister had developed their technology. She finally met his eyes again, hers pooling with tears. “She was so scared all the time.” She paused and took a deep breath. “Teresa always knew he’d find her. She didn’t want them to take another family from her so she begged me to help her.” She paused again and turned her head to the side, a tear rolling down her cheek. Logan moved his chair closer to her and took her hand.
“The first few times after we started to get closer to the right strength were the worst,” she continued. “She’d scream and her body would convulse. God, I even fucking passed out with her a few times.” She closed her eyes, as if trying to blot out the painful memories.
Logan pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her. “We’re going to get her back,” he whispered in her ear. “I promise you.”
Her eyes were still watery when their gazes met and she stated, “The Taser wouldn’t have worked on him.”
“It fucking hurt, Thea, but no.” His voice sounded raspy and tortured to his own ears when he added, “If you had found Leon before I found you, he would have killed you. I would have lost my destiny before even realizing I had one.”
She gave him a shaky smile just as another thought occurred to him. “What were you and your sister planning on doing if your weapon did end up working on Leon like the others?”
Thea hesitated for a few beats before responding. “There’s no way Teresa could win a fight against an alpha, but with him down, she was going to…”
Logan hugged her close. He didn’t need for her to finish her sentence. Teresa was going to take him out. There was no other way. The rest of his cultist pack would disband without their alpha. “Once I take care of Leon, his pack will no longer be a threat,” he told Thea. “Teresa was just a child when they killed her parents. She had no alpha in her corner, but I can assure you that she does now.” He’d make damn sure the survivors of the Kostastakis family and pack members would know that he’d end them as well should they ever fuck with any member of the Petridis family again.
“You’ll stay here with me tonight,” he told her. “Tomorrow night, after my men gather enough information and they get Teresa’s location, we’ll go get her.”
Surprisingly she didn’t protest, especially after he told her that he had people watching her parents as well, making sure they were safe. He had heard the relief in her father’s voice when she had spoken to him on the phone earlier and he pretty much commanded her to do as Logan ordered when she said she wasn’t going to sit out. Logan suspected her father had plenty of experience with the stubbornness of his own daughter and it was easier to let her do her thing while keeping her safe than to try and stop her.
“Do you have more of these?” he asked inclining his head toward the assortment of Tasers.
She nodded. “We keep them locked up at work.”
“Good to know in case we need more. In the meantime, you should go get some rest.” He stood up and offered her his hand, pleased that this time she took it instead of swatting him away. He stood close to her, towering over her five-foot-four frame, and ran his knuckles gently over her non-bruised cheek. “You can sleep in my room,” he said, pointing it out to her. “It’s bigger and has its own bathroom. I’ll take the guest room.”
“I don’t want to impose,” she began, but he stopped her with a gentle kiss to her lips. It was chaste, and nothing like the way he actually wanted to kiss her, but once again he feared scaring her off.
He pulled back and saw that her eyes were still closed, and her expression conveyed that she had been just as lost in the kiss as he was despite their quick meeting of lips. He smiled at her when she finally opened her eyes. “You’re not imposing, Thea. I like having you here.” He’d like it even more if she moved in, but he wasn’t going to tell her that … yet.
She cleared her throat and took a few steps back. “I’m just going to take a quick shower before I turn in.”
“There are clean towels in the cabinet,” he said, expecting her to turn and go, but she just stood there, staring at him.
Finally, after a few more moments, she cleared her throat again and said, “Good night,” before heading for his room.
He was going to need a cold shower himself if he had any hopes of falling asleep tonight, especially since now his mind was conjuring up all kinds of delicious images of his naked mate in the shower.
“Oh, my God!”
He heard her squeal from his bedroom, quickly dousing out his erotic images of her. He ran to his room and threw open his bedroom door, ready to dismember whoever was threatening his mate, but he found her safe and sound, gawking at the guitar in a display case on the wall. “Was that really signed by Slash?”
“Jesus, fuck! You scared me.” He didn’t scare easily, but this woman could bring him to his knees, and without any enhanced fancy gadgetry. Once his heart rate returned to normal, he answered, “It was actually his guitar that he signed and gave me.”
She turned to him, awestruck. “Wow! How’d you manage that?”
Logan shrugged. “Payment for my services. You’re a Guns N’ Roses fan?”
“Hell, yeah! My father loves them and it sort of spilled over onto Teresa and me.” She turned back to the display case. “So … um … what did he hire you to do?”
“I can’t tell you that,” he replied.
She turned to face him again and rolled her eyes. “Or you’ll have to kill me?”
Logan barked out a laugh. “No, honey. Client confidentiality and all.”
She smiled back at him. “Oh. Well, okay then.”
As much as he wanted to stay and talk more with her, or even better, to rip all of her clothes away from her luscious body and devour every inch of her skin before sinking his cock deep inside of her, he turned to go. There was only so much torture he could endure and the sweet smell of her arousal was only adding to his inferno.
When he reached the door, he turned around and said, “By the way, Slash isn’t human.” He chuckled as her jaw dropped before turning to leave again.
“Well that explains his inhuman guitar-playing skills,” he heard her say after he had already left the room.
Logan’s pocket vibrated with a text from one of his contacts. He found Teresa in upstate New York and was sending him live feed of her location and would be sending periodic updates of the goings-on there. After he powered up his laptop, Logan studied the surveillance. His cold shower would have to wait for now, he decided, but he thought perhaps his favorite pastime would help him relax and get his mind off of a certain naked woman in his bathroom while he stared at the computer screen.