CAPTURED: 9 Alpha Bad-Boys(173)

"You wouldn't happen to have a tool kit available, would you?" Tor joked.

"Of course," Riley said without looking up. "Pliers, scissors, flathead  screwdrivers, Philips head-you name it, I've probably got it. What do  you need?"

She finally looked up when no one replied. All five men were looking at  her in disbelief. She frowned, looking from one to the other puzzled.  She didn't know what the big deal was; lots of women carried basic tools  with them. You never knew when you might need one, and it wasn't like  she had a guy around with a tool bag fixing things for her.

"What?" she asked innocently.

Vox took a step toward the bed, looking down at her in disbelief. "You have tools with you, and you didn't tell us?"

Riley shrugged, looking up at him with a raised eyebrow. "No one asked."

"No one asked," Vox muttered looking at Tor and Lodar in disbelief. "We  have been looking for tools for the past week! Haven't you heard us  talking about it?" he asked her in aggravation.

"Well, yes, now that you mention it, but I figured when you said, ‘She's  a female, why would she need tools?'"-Riley said, dropping her voice to  a deeper tone to imitate Vox's voice-"that it was like a guy asking for  directions! I decided if you really needed them, you could ask me." And  she returned her attention back to the story she was reading.         

     



 

Vox bit back a curse. "Can we see the tools you have?" he asked through gritted teeth.

Riley rolled her eyes but shut off the iPad. She sat up and reached for  her huge handbag at the end of the bed. After a few minutes of digging  around in it, she began pulling out all the tools she had stashed in the  different compartments. She pulled out her large Leatherman, then her  Leatherman Micro, a folding set of Allen wrenches, a small plastic  container with various sizes of screwdrivers, a pair of scissors, her  manicure set, and a pair of wire snips.

"Oh, I didn't know I had those in there," she murmured. "I think I have  another pair of needle-nose pliers somewhere in here." Her voice was  muffled as she stuck her head further into the large bag.

"How in the names of all the gods can she have so much in there?" Lodar  asked, amazed, as she began pulling more and more things out and laying  them on the bed next to her.





Chapter 5

"What about this wire? Do you think it connects to the explosive pack or to the detonation switch?" Vox was asking Tor.

All five men were gathered around a partially dismantled collar. Or  should she say, four of the men were gathered around one of the  partially dismantled collars on Fred. Poor Fred was a shivering nervous  wreck as Vox, Tor, and Lodar examined the collar while Bob leaned over  their shoulders watching from a distance. They had been at it ever since  they had returned from the dining area.

"I'm not sure yet," Tor murmured under his breath. "There are three sets  of wires. If I cut the wrong one it could explode. I don't know enough  about the Antrox to know how they do their wiring configurations."

"Please," Fred's right head said in a trembling voice. His left head was  sitting perfectly still with its eyes tightly closed. "Please,  c-ca-can't you do this to someone else?"

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Riley muttered, getting up from the bed where she had been trying to read. "How difficult can this be?"

She tossed her iPad down to the side. It was impossible to concentrate  on what she was reading anyway with everyone in the room. Besides, she  was tired of listening to Fred's soft whimpers. She walked over to where  the group of men was kneeling around the small, trembling body of the  Tiliqua and picked up the pair of wire snips. She studied the wires for a  moment before reaching over Tor's shoulder and snipping the reddish  color wire. The moment she did, the glowing light showing it was active  went out.

"Problem solved," she said, dropping the pliers into Tor's open hand and returning to the bed.

Both sets of Fred's eyes rolled back in his head as he fainted. Lodar  and Tor grabbed him and lowered him down to the hard floor before  turning to stare at her in disbelief. Riley picked up her manicure kit,  pulled out her nail file, and began shaping the chipped edges; working  in the mine had made a mess of them. She finally looked up when the  silence stretched into several long minutes.

Four pairs of eyes, including one blazing set, were staring at her in  disbelief. "What?" she asked, looking at them in exasperation. "You guys  were taking too long to make up your minds. It's not like it was that  difficult of a choice, and I was tired of listening to Fred whining."

"How did you know which wire to clip?" Tor finally asked curiously.

Riley shrugged, looking at the nail she had been working on. "Everyone  knows it's the red wire that you cut," she replied, working on the next  nail.

"But how did you know?" Vox asked suspiciously.

He wanted to know if perhaps he had been mistaken this whole time about  the female he knew to be his mate. Things were suddenly not as clear as  he first thought. What better way to knock him and his men off guard  than to find an unfamiliar female specimen they had no experience with?  The fact that she was his mate turned out to be a bonus. He suddenly had  questions he wanted answers to! Like why was she allowed to claim five  mates when all other females only had one? Why did she have tools on  her? How did she know which wire to cut? Was there more to her than he'd  originally thought?

Vox stood up and stalked toward her menacingly. It would not make a  difference that she was his mate. He would do what he had to do to  protect his people, even if it meant …  Even if it meant killing the one  woman he knew was meant for him.

"How did you know which wire to cut?" he growled out in a low, menacing voice.

Riley stopped filing her nails and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.  "I know you are not talking to me in that tone of voice," she said,  staring at him through narrowed eyes.

He stopped in front of the bed and knelt down in front of her. Reaching  out, he gripped her wrists in a firm but unbreakable hold. He stared  deeply into her eyes, determined to know the truth even as his mind,  body, and cat rebelled against the idea that she could betray them.

"How did you know?" he asked again softly.

Riley frowned back at him in confusion. Why was he suddenly so intense?  Everybody knew you were supposed to cut the red wire. She frowned again,  biting her lower lip.

Or was it the black one? she suddenly thought, trying to remember which  wire the guys in The Abyss and Speed always said they were supposed to  cut.

"Damn it, now I can't remember!" she said crossly. "I'm trying to  remember if the guys in the movies said you always cut the red one or  the black one." She looked at Vox with confused eyes. "I'll have to  watch The Abyss again."

"Who is this Abyss?" he asked cautiously as Lodar and Tor came up behind him.

Riley looked up at the other two men, then over to Bob before looking  down where poor Fred was still out cold. Her eyes moved back until she  was looking worriedly into Vox's dark tawny ones.

"He's going to be all right, isn't he?" she asked hesitantly, glancing  back at Fred before looking again at Vox. "I mean, I cut the right one,  didn't I? He isn't hurt, is he?"

"Riley," Vox said squeezing her wrists gently to get her attention as  her eyes drifted to the Tiliqua again. "How did you know which wire to  cut?"

"From all the movies I've watched," she said looking at the other men.  "I mean, I'm pretty sure it was the red wire they always cut. You see,  in the movie The Abyss, the hero has to go to the bottom of the ocean  because the bad guy was being a butthead about the aliens that came to  visit them. He has to stop this bomb from blowing up the aliens that  live there only he can't really see what color the wire is, and the good  guys back on the underwater station are telling him to cut the red  wire. Only I can't remember now if they said the red wire. It could have  been the black one. Anyway, he can't really tell what color the wire is  because he is using this green glow stick thingy like we used to play  with on Halloween. That's when we all dress up in costumes and pretend  to be monsters and stuff so we can go get some free candy, only I always  dressed up as a ghost because Pearl couldn't afford costumes for me and  Tina so she used some old sheets," she explained. "Does this make  sense?"

"No," all four men said before Vox growled at the others to be quiet.

"No," Vox said, looking into Riley's confused eyes.

Riley sighed in frustration before remembering she had been watching  Galaxy Quest on her iPad earlier. She tugged on her wrist so she could  grab it and show them what she was talking about. Vox held her firmly  for a second before reluctantly releasing one wrist. He kept his eyes  glued to her while she reached for the device she had been so focused on  over the past couple of days. If she tried anything, he would make her  death as quick and painless as he could. Pain sliced through him at the  thought of hurting the delicate beauty in front of him. His cat hissed  in revolt, clawing at his insides in rebellion.