“But what if it takes a while?” she asked.
“Then we’ll wait a while. Years if we have to,” he assured her. “Honey, I want you happy and you’re worth waiting for.”
“But I’m happy when we—” Flushing, she cut herself off and said instead, “And if I decide I’m willing to be your life mate?”
“Then I’ll rip your clothes off and make love to you until you can’t stand,” he said as if they were discussing the weather.
“And if I decide I’m not willing to risk being your life mate?” she asked.
Frustration filled his expression. “Valerie, there is no risk here. The nanos don’t make mistakes. This is a sure bet. The only game where you can’t lose. All you have to do is be willing to accept the gift they’re offering us.”
Valerie stared at him silently. Like Lucian, he made it sound so simple. The nanos had decided. It was a fait accompli. Blah blah blah. Men were such twits sometimes. She needed more than—
A moan from Igor caught her attention and she glanced down, then gasped in surprise when Anders plunged the stake into him again.
“Anders, we need him alive,” she protested, reaching for the swaying sunflower sticking out of the man’s chest.
“I’ll take it out in a minute,” he said, brushing her hand away. “If he’s moaning, he’s recovering. I just want to slow him down a little. At least until the men get here.”
As if his words had conjured them up, the sound of a vehicle drew Valerie’s gaze to a dark SUV coming up the driveway. Mortimer and Bricker had arrived to collect Igor, she guessed as they parked the vehicle beside Anders’s and got out.
“We finally got our rogue’s name out of him,” Mortimer announced with a smile as he led Bricker toward them.
“Ambrose,” Anders said at once.
Mortimer’s smile faded, his mouth making an “o” of surprise. “How the hell do you know that?”
“Valerie got the name from Igor,” Anders said with amusement.
“Ah.” Mortimer glanced toward the man lying in the driveway, then glanced back, his gaze meeting Valerie’s, “So . . . did you find out about the girls?”
“No.” Valerie admitted with a frown. “Did you?”
“Yes, indeed.” Mortimer’s smile was back. “They’re alive and well in a house about ten minutes from here. Nicholas, Jo, and Decker are on their way there now. They’ll take them back to the Enforcer house to be checked over, wiped, and sent back to their lives. This time for good.”
Valerie let her breath out on a sigh, only realizing then that she’d been holding it. She’d been so worried that Ambrose may already have killed them.
“No. He only planned to kill you,” Mortimer said, obviously reading her mind. “You were the difficult one who had seen the portrait. None of the others remembered anything that could have given him away.”
“Then why did he take them at all?” Valerie asked with a frown. “From what I understand, he didn’t need to take them to read them, he just had to get close. Why take the risk and kidnap them again when he knew they didn’t know anything that could point a finger his way?”
Bricker grimaced. “He has a strange way of thinking. He kind of saw you ladies as his property.”
“You mean his cattle,” Valerie said grimly.
“Basically,” Bricker acknowledged apologetically and then shrugged. “He wanted you all back where he felt you belonged.”
“So that he could continue to bleed us dry of blood until we died?” Valerie suggested, eyes narrowed.
Bricker nodded. “I’m afraid so.”
Valerie muttered under her breath with disgust.
“Did you find out how he got onto the women?” Anders asked. “How he knew they had no family and chose them?”
“Ah yes,” Mortimer nodded. “Valerie, I gather you were going to work at the Teaching Hospital?”
“Teaching Hospital?” Anders asked, glancing to her.
“The college has a teaching hospital for animals, basically a veterinary clinic for students to hone their skills. The students perform the procedures, but they’re overseen by the teaching staff who can step in if a situation arises. I was going to work there a couple days a week to keep my skills sharp and to practice a couple of new techniques I hoped to learn in my courses this year,” she explained. “In fact, I was at the Teaching Hospital the afternoon I was kidnapped.”
Mortimer nodded. “That’s where he found his victims. He’s on staff there. Cindy, Laura, and Kathy had taken their pets into the clinic hospital for one reason or another and he took the opportunity to ask questions and learn if they were likely victims for him or not. He met Billie in the bookstore coffee shop one afternoon when he was in the bookstore. He struck up a conversation with her, learned she was on her own with no one to care if she went missing and . . .” He shrugged.