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midnight.”
    Peyton stepped over KT, instead of going around her like he would have preferred. He had to treat her like furniture or Massey’d notice. He fished the remote out of the wicker basket beside the cable box and tossed it to Massey before he crossed to windows. Closing the curtains, he shut out the early twilight.
    It was going to be a long wait.

Chapter Five
    KT drifted on a float in the middle of the pool. Overhead, a twin-engine plane droned low across the sky, a dark silhouette against the high cirrus clouds. Strains of Latin music floated to her from somewhere and the thrum of the plane’s engines rumbled against her skin.
    Mighty big engines for a twin prop, she thought, lifting one hand to shade her eyes. Or she tried, but her hands were tied behind her back.
    The rumbling resolved itself into the sound of a powerful V-8 while the bite of plastic ties into her wrists drove the last of the dream from her mind. Andi sprang into pure panic mode, until KT remembered what was going on.
    We’re okay . She struggled to control her breathing, and kept her eyelids closed. Thank heavens, the salison dose had worn off. She had missed Andi’s familiar presence.
    Though she tried to play it off, the plastic ties had freaked her out more than the injection or the microchip. Peyton had refused to budge.
    “They’re standard for Collectors,” he had said, pulling a packet of them from his coat pocket. “Captured weres are too much for humans to handle unrestrained. Even the double dose of sedatives doesn’t always keep us down.”
    Rationally, she understood, but instinctively, she hated them. Andi’s vehement second bordered on hysteria. KT chanced a soothing deep breath. The scents of Massey and Peyton drifted to her from the front, mingled with gasoline and exhaust fumes. KT tried to ignore how far the scent of Peyton went to calming Andi.
    From the sound of the engine, and the fact that she wasn’t stuffed in a trunk, KT guessed the vehicle was an SUV. In route to the airport? The high hum of the tires could only be highway travel. Seemed things were going according to plan.
    Massey’s voice pulled the tension back into her. “Mind if I change the station? This Latin shit is making my headache worse.”
    “My car, my music.” Peyton said, though the music did soften. “Besides, if you’d been paying attention, she’d never have gotten the drop on you.”
    “How could I pay attention to her with you pounding the hell out of me?”
    “Had to make it look good.”
    “Well, that wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t missed her in the first place.”
    “Who stood in the stairwell, instead of pushing harder for an invite in?”
    “Shut up.”
    Pissing off Massey didn’t seem like a good move to KT. Peyton had better know what he was doing. If they were as close to the airport as he said, he’d portioned that injection a bit too fine for her comfort. As it was, her mind wanted to skitter off into la-la land, and the inside of her mouth felt like a desert.
    Andi retreated into the background, a low growling rumble in the recesses of KT’s mind. Calmer, KT could now focus on pretending to be unconscious, taking long, slow breaths.
    She had watched Massey for a while to get a feel for how someone breathed when sedated. When they moved him onto her couch, she had taken note of just how limp he felt. It was going to be hard to let her neck and limbs relax enough to pretend to be unconscious.
    Massey’s voice interrupted her thoughts. “Take this exit.”
    The sound of the pavement changed as they completed the turn followed by another long period of driving between stops, for traffic lights she assumed. Then a final wide turn before the vehicle stopped and the engine shut off. With the radio off, she could hear the muffled sound of engines, jet engines. The airport.
    Locks clicked and doors opened. The vehicle rocked, and then shuddered when the doors slammed shut. Footsteps moved along both sides of