Croc and the Fox Read Free

explain what happened outside?”
“I didn’t like it.” Her nose wrinkled in distaste.
“Didn’t like what?”
“The sky. The bright light.”
“Why not? Are you a nocturnal shifter?”
She shook her head.
He frowned, and she recoiled. It annoyed him. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m just trying to understand why you’re so
scared.”“It’s too big out there.”
    Ah, agoraphobia, a fear of open spaces. “It just seems that way because you’ve been imprisoned. You’ll get used to it.”
She shook her head sending wild locks flying. “No thanks. I’d rather not.”
His jaw probably dropped a foot. “What do you mean, you’d rather not? You have to. You can’t stay in this prison forever.”
Her head tilted and she shot him a curious glance. “Why
    not?” “What do you mean why not?” he sputtered. “This is a cell. Normal people don’t want to live in cells. It’s not right.” “Well I do.”
“You can’t.”
Her lower lip jutted. “Oh yes I can.”
She draped the blanket over her head and crossed her arms, her whole stance screaming stubborn.
“Now what are you doing?” he asked, no longer bothering to hide his exasperation.
“Ignoring you.”
“You’ve got to be freaking kidding me. I order you to come with me.”
“No.”
“You can’t say no. I’m in charge here.”
“We’ve already ascertained you’re not my father, nor a scientist, or a guard, which means I don’t have to listen to you.”
And then she clapped her hands over her ears and began
to hum.Screw this. Tired of talking with an obvious mad
    woman, Viktor leaned down and tore the blanket off. Before she could react, he scooped up the crazy redhead, upending her over his shoulder. She let out a squeak of surprise.
“What are you doing? Put me down.”
    “No.” Arm locked over her thighs, her weight nothing on his bulky shoulder, he exited the cell.
“Where are we going?”
“Away from here.”
“Are you taking me to the labs?”
“Of course not.”
“Locking me in solitary?”
His jaw tightened. “No one will be locking you up, ever again.” Well, unless she broke the law, but he’d let someone else explain that to her when – and if – they ever released her to the world at large.
“So where are we going then?”
“Like I said, away from here.”
“But I don’t want to leave.”
“Too bad. I say you have to. And since I’m bigger than you, what I say goes.” A childish retort for her juvenile arguing.
“This is kidnapping.”
“Rescue,” he corrected.
“You can’t do this.”
“I can and am.” He jogged up the several flights of stairs, ignoring the strange looks he got from the other FUC operatives wandering the place, photographing and boxing anything they found of interest. He also ignored the former prisoner’s demands to put her down. To go away. And to do something anatomically impossible with himself.
“Where did you learn such language?” he finally asked, reaching the top level. The vulgarity of her speech, especially coming from such a delicate looking cutie, surprised him.
“The guards. The doctors. The others in the cells with me. I even know some of them in Spanish. Would you like to hear them?” she replied sweetly.
“Sure, my boys could stand to learn some new ones. Feel free to shout as many as you like because we’re going outside now.”
“No!” she yelled. Viktor stumbled as she buried her face in his lower back and wrapped her arms around his middle, tighter than the anaconda he dated a few years back.
“Can’t breathe,” he joked.
Her grip didn’t loosen in the slightest. Faced with a dilemma, Viktor didn’t immediately exit the building. If this were a soldier, or agent, acting like a great big wuss bag, he would have ignored the terror and thrown them out to meet the source. But, his mystery lady was a victim. Somehow he doubted Kloe, or his coworkers, would approve of him just tossing her into the sunshine given her fear. And, a teensy tiny part of him,