It was somewhere around ten hours from New York to Alaska. Dominic had a long night to ruminate on the task he had to complete tomorrow.
He had to break Kinley Kohl.
“Can we get her out of that ridiculous dress?” Dominic asked, eyeing her all wrapped in white silk and satin. He couldn’t contemplate playing hardball with her when she looked that damn innocent.
When Law had passed her to him from the truck, she’d nestled down into his arms like a trusting child. Or a lover. But she could never be his lover. Or Law’s—no matter what he imagined.
“I think Law would be happy to undress her,” Riley said. “You want me to take his place in the cockpit?”
Riley wasn’t half the pilot his brother was, but he would be able to keep them in flight.
“No.” He didn’t want to tempt Law any further. “She can change when we arrive and she comes to. She won’t wake up during the flight, will she?”
Riley shrugged. “She hasn’t gotten much sleep lately. At least that’s what Annabelle said. But she had a weird reaction to the sedative. She came out of it for a minute in the hall. Law held her then and stroked her hair. She went back to sleep.”
Dominic bet that little episode had done nothing to dampen Law’s infatuation. That man had a deep-seated need to protect. Kinley looked fragile right now, but surely when the interrogation started tomorrow, she would show her true colors.
“Gigi.” She started to mutter in her sleep. “Where…Gigi?”
Dominic frowned. “Who’s Gigi?”
“Annabelle mentioned her. Then she gave us that half smile women often do, the one that looks a little evil and makes you wait for things to start falling. You know what I’m talking about?”
Annabelle could be a bit mysterious, but he had other problems now. “Did you check through her luggage? I don’t want to find a cell phone.”
Cell phones had GPS. GPS meant they were up shit creek and all his careful planning had been for nothing.
“I left it sitting on the table in the living area of the suite.”
Not good enough. There had been a ton of people going through that bridal suite all day long. “How do you know it was hers?”
“Have you looked at her? Look, man, it was in her room and it was pink and blinged within an inch of its life. She seems to like little fake diamonds on everything. I don’t get it.”
He was going to have Law’s head. It had been a sloppy operation. Law should have made damn sure that was her phone. He could forgive Riley, who was usually behind the scenes, but Law knew damn well how to run an op. Now Dominic had to check through the luggage to make sure they weren’t going to be met by feds when they landed in River Run.
“Why did Law decide to bring a half ton of designer luggage with us?”
Dominic knew he shouldn’t, but he stared across the aisle. Her blonde hair was the color of honey. The pictures didn’t capture its natural beauty. Lighter shades threaded through the darker ones, forming a gorgeous honey and amber color that contrasted beautifully with her skin.
Porcelain. Her skin was like porcelain, perfect and creamy white.
He needed to remember that porcelain, while beautiful, was also cold.
“He was worried she might need something in there,” Riley answered with a touch of disbelief, as if he, too, thought his brother had gone mental.
“So he wanted to be the guy who brought all her clothes along. He’s going to kill me over this.” He pulled the first bag free and slid the zipper around. The top popped open as though deeply happy at being free. She’d stuffed the bag to the hilt. “Holy shit. How many pairs of jeans does one woman need?”
There were at least a dozen pairs of jeans in the case, each with more and more elaborately placed rhinestones across the pockets that would hug her ass. It was like Las Vegas had taken over her luggage. Every eye in the world would go straight to her ass because there was no way anyone could miss it.
“There seems to be a theme here. She likes shiny objects. Maybe if we get some jewelry we can distract her enough so she’ll just give us all the intel we need,” Dominic offered.
There were several shirts but they were blousy and draped, rather modest by modern standards. Her bras and panties were utilitarian, all white cotton. Nothing lacy and pretty to show off her stunning body on her honeymoon. That was a riddle. Dominic would have bet that Kinley used that sexy body to get everything she wanted, but her underwear told a different story.
There was a makeup bag with bright pink trim and black polka dots. In fact, nothing was plain about anything Kinley owned—except her underwear.
He opened the makeup case. Nothing was sacred now. He needed to know everything about her, understand her better before he began his interrogation.
Her makeup was drugstore. Cheap. That surprised him. The luggage was wretchedly expensive, but she got by with crappy makeup and inexpensive moisturizer.
He was sure she would be wearing Chanel right before Jansen killed her.
Dominic took a long breath and repacked her bag, using the little gold lock to run the zipper back around the edge.
“This one is full of shoes.” Riley held up a pair that he would expect a stripper to wear. They were fucking hot. “She has twelve pairs of shoes for a five-day trip. Why does she need all those shoes?”
To make a man crazy. To make her legs look a million miles long. To wrap them around his back and press into his flesh. Her shoes were everything her undies weren’t. They were hot sex on stilettos.
He had to turn away because he was getting agonizingly hard just thinking about her in those heels.
The bag to his left began to shake. And bark.
Well, now he could guess who Gigi was. He unzipped the travel bag and a puffball leapt out.
“What the fuck is that?” Riley asked, frowning down at the little thing. Kinley had tied a pink bow in its fur, and there was a rhinestone-studded collar around its tiny throat.
“I think it’s supposed to be a dog.” It started to yip, a deeply annoying sound. The little thing started to bark and run in circles as though trying to communicate.
“It looks more like a rat. Why would she put bows on a rat?” Riley leaned down and held out a hand. “Here, girl. Let’s get you back in the bag. That’s your home, right? Don’t you want to go back home and stop that infernal sound you’re making? I can’t call it a bark. Real dogs bark.”
But the little rat thing proved it could bite. The minute Riley reached for it, it nipped him.
Riley popped back up, shaking his hand, then staring at it. “Damn it. I’m going to go wash my hand and hope that thing doesn’t have rabies.”
He stalked back toward the bathroom.
Riley didn’t seem to understand that all creatures needed to know their place in the pecking order, whether person or dog or weirdly dressed rat thing. Dominic knew who was in charge—him.
He picked up Gigi by the scruff of her neck, lifting her high in the air, and bringing her up to meet his eyes. Gigi made an odd sound in the back of her throat that Dominic thought might pass for a snarl in rat-dog world.
Dominic spoke in a language the animal could understand. He gave her a real snarl.
Gigi whimpered and tried to rear back into a protective ball.
Now, they understood each other. He set the dog thing back down. It immediately ran to hide in Kinley’s skirts, apparently not caring that its mistress was unconscious.
Dominic sighed and sat back in his chair.
Riley plopped down beside him. “It didn’t break the skin. Maybe its teeth aren’t sharp enough. Have you thought about the fact that Butch is going to eat that thing?”
His bulldog was already in Alaska. River Run and the compound there had become their base of operations for this particular mission. One of their largest clients, Black Oak Oil, had offered to let them use the large house they kept outside their center in Alaska. When Dominic had asked about it, Gavin James had simply handed over the keys and the security codes, insisting that he didn’t want to know a damn thing else.
Gavin knew him fairly well, but their connections in public were almost purely professional. If Kinley’s kidnapping got tied back to him, it would be a while before the feds got around to questioning Gavin. “Butch will be a perfect gentleman.”
He hoped. Kinley probably wouldn’t be too helpful if his dog swallowed hers whole and burped up those pink bows.
With great effort, she lifted her head and sighed. “Find Gigi…”
The words were slurred like she was totally trashed. It was a reasonable reaction to the sedatives, though they should have just knocked her out for at least eight to ten hours. She was certainly stronger physically than he’d imagined.
“Gigi is hiding in your skirts,” he explained in a soft voice.
She smiled, and his heart actually skipped a beat. What the hell was that about? Those plump lips curled up, and she flushed a little. He could imagine that exact expression on her face when he pressed his cock deep and found that perfect place deep inside her.
Had Jansen ever given her a screaming orgasm? The thought of his sister’s killer fucking Kinley deflated his dick in a second. He wasn’t going to have sex with Jansen’s leftovers. No fucking way. No matter how much he wanted her.
She lurched up on wobbly feet and immediately stumbled, landing right in his lap.
“Go to sleep, Kinley.” He tried making it an order. Maybe Kinley was a little like her rat-dog thing and just needed a firm hand.
“Kay,” she slurred and nuzzled her face in the crook of his neck where he could feel her breath on his skin.
Yeah, his cock was hard again. She settled her ass against it, and Dominic thought he might come in his slacks. Damn it. “In your own seat, Kinley.”
“Kay.” But she just snuggled closer and sighed as though she’d found right where she wanted to be.
“She seems very affectionate when she’s incapacitated.” Riley had the faintest smile on his face. “You probably shouldn’t move her. She might sleep better like that.”
“Then get Law out here to hold her.” He couldn’t just sit here with her all pressed up against him for hours. Even as he thought it, the plane hit an air pocket. With the momentary turbulence, his arm wound around her waist, tugging her more firmly into his lap. She would fall if he didn’t, and he couldn’t have her injured at this junction. That was the only reason he did it.
“Unfortunately, Law is flying the plane,” Riley pointed out, then turned quiet for a moment. “She seems sweet actually. She’s not totally what I thought she was.”
Fuck. Riley drank her in with that same glazed, lustful expression Law did. This could spell trouble.
Kinley’s breathing evened out as she went utterly limp. Knowing he was stuck with her indefinitely, Dominic held in a curse. “Pull your head out of your pants. She’s exactly what we thought. She’s just better at manipulating men than I gave her credit for. She even does it in her damn sleep.”
Riley snorted. “We gave her the equivalent of a horse tranquilizer, and she’s managed to worry more about that little hairy thing than herself.”
It was time to remind his partner of some hard truths. “She’s marrying for money.”
Riley sat back, sighing a little. “Is that really the worst crime you can think of?”
He could think of worse. Murder, for instance. But once Jansen had the money his sister had earned modeling and entrée into her glitzy New York social world, Jansen hadn’t needed her anymore. So he’d killed her. Carrie had married the bastard because she thought she loved him.
“She’s going to spread her legs for money,” Dominic reminded. “You know what we called that back home?”
Riley’s face flushed angrily. “Yeah, I’m sure you called those women whores. Of course I called her mom. I think I’ll go sit with Law for a while.”
Dominic’s stomach dropped.
“I wasn’t talking about your mother,” he said, trying to come back from the precipice of a really nasty fight. God, he wasn’t thinking these days.
Riley didn’t bother to turn around. “Yeah, you were. I just think you should stop for five minutes and consider that the world isn’t always fair. Some people get dealt a shitty hand.”
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Do you? The world isn’t black and white.” Riley gritted his teeth. “Good people can sometimes do bad things for the right reasons. The fact that I have to say that to you is ridiculous. We just kidnapped a woman, and you’re planning on making her life a living hell until she gives you the information you need. In light of that, ask yourself if whoring really seems that bad. I’ll see you when we touch down.”
“Riley,” he called out, but the other man ignored him and disappeared behind the cockpit door.
Kinley didn’t move, just laid there trustingly in his arms.
