From Jennifer Ashley, With Love

by Jennifer Ashley

  “I’ve had worse,” Ronan said. “Trust me.” He gave Elizabeth’s hand a pat. “Haven’t I, Lizzie-girl?”

  “Yeah, because you’re an idiot.” Elizabeth put her head on his shoulder, moonlight catching on the bright red streaks in her hair.

  “Why didn’t any of the neighbors stop Nate running off with them?” Myka demanded. She’d already learned that, in Shiftertown, everyone came outside the minute anything the least bit exciting went down.

  “On fight night?” Ronan asked. “Are you kidding? Especially when they got wind that Spike was going to take on Dylan? No one’s here.”

  Liam spoke up from the shadows. “Interesting that Gavan wants Spike to best my dad. I bet Spike can. He’s a hell of a fighter. A good way of raising Spike’s status in Shiftertown. Gavan is honing Spike to be his perfect weapon.”

  “Spike isn’t a weapon,” Myka snapped. “Or a tracker. He’s a person. A Shifter person. You know what I mean.”

  “Aye, lass, I do. And you both were right to kick my teeth in over it. I tend to forget that Spike is more than a thug who used to work for Fergus, my rival.” He stepped into the moonlight, his eyes glinting with Shifter anger. “Now let’s go get Jordan.”

  “Where?” Myka thought about the large city of Austin, the bigger spread of San Antonio, and all the scattered towns and countryside in between. “How do we find him?”

  “I have a pretty good idea where to start.”

  Liam headed for the small pickup Connor had driven here. Myka again got into the passenger seat while Connor climbed over the tailgate to the truck’s empty bed.

  Liam started the truck, looking confident, but Myka felt anything but confident. Worry and fear for Jordan, Ella, and Spike poured over her in endless waves.

  To distract herself as they pulled away, she asked, “So what happened to your rival? To Fergus? He sounds like a real piece of work.”

  Liam shot her a sideways look and a smile, though his blue eyes flickered with remembered pain. “I wiped the floor with him, lass. And then Sean turned him to dust.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Liam drove south out of town and off the freeway to back highways. These were two-lane roads, on a Saturday night, in a part of Hill Country in which there was not much else to do but drink. Twice Liam had to dive for the side of the road while someone pulled out in the oncoming lane to pass and misjudged the distance.

  Myka held on, her blood cold in her veins.

  “Don’t worry, lass,” Liam said. “Almost there.”

  He turned off onto a long road that led into blackness. Through the open window, Myka heard the yip of coyotes, smelled dust and grass. They were a long way from the city, which was a distant glow on the horizon behind them.

  Liam slowed the truck, turned off the lights, and crept along. Myka heard a soft thump behind them, and realized that Connor had dropped off the back of the truck. She craned her head to look for him, but he disappeared into the darkness.

  “Where are we?” she asked, feeling the need to whisper.

  “Middle of nowhere. One of Fergus’s human lovers lives out here. He tucked her back here to keep her hidden from his mates.”

  “Mates?” Myka repeated in surprise. “Plural? Shifters can have more than one?”

  “Fergus wanted to be an old-fashioned version of a clan leader, who technically is allowed to mate-claim as many females as he wants. He can either hand them out to lesser males of the clan, or keep them for himself. Fergus had two mates. Selfish when there weren’t enough females to go around. He always professed to hate anything human, and then it turns out he had a human girlfriend secreted away, the hypocrite. A woman called Hannah. Anyway, apparently only Nate knew where she lived—Fergus never went anywhere without a bodyguard. Nate let slip about her a couple weeks after Fergus died. I think Nate’s been seeing her himself since then, though he’s never said.”

  Myka looked around. “And you think Nate took Jordan to her to hide?”

  “It’s worth a shot. Another possibility is a cabin where Fergus and the three trackers used to go to hunt and run. It’s more remote, but I’m betting Gavan will figure that’s the first place Spike would think of.”

  Liam stopped the truck and killed the engine. Around them pulsed the sounds of the night—crickets, frogs, and the coyotes in the distance. Myka shivered. Coyotes usually didn’t bother people, but they did steal cats and dogs, and a small cub like Jordan might be all the same to them.

  A house crouched in the darkness about twenty yards ahead on the other side of a ditch. No lights shone in the windows, and all was silent.

  Liam opened the door with the faintest click. “I want you to stay here and keep out of sight.” No more charming Irish brogue, just quiet seriousness. “Nate obviously has a gun. Connor and I can sneak up on him, but he might come out the front.”

  Myka nodded her understanding. She slid down on the seat, so she could still see but blend into the darkness.

  Liam vanished. Myka tried to keep him in her focus, but he walked away into the night and was gone. The faintest rustle of grass told her he was moving toward the house.

  Another rustle sounded, not as subtle. Myka saw the grass stir, caught starlight on a moving patch of fur. Connor, slinking along as a lionlike wildcat.

  It was hell to sit there and wait, but Myka knew she’d be foolish to rush up to the door and bang on it, much as she wanted to. If Nate was in there, he’d either answer the door ready to shoot, or have his girlfriend hustle Jordan and Ella out the back, or both.

  Myka clenched her hands. She imagined Liam and Connor circling the house, slinking low like lions stalking prey on the veldt. They’d make it to the house . . . and then what?

  Would Liam sneak inside, grab Jordan, and run? Maybe have Nate shoot him in the back for his pains? And what if the bullet missed Liam and hit Jordan or Connor?

  Myka waited until Liam and Connor had plenty of time to get into position. Then she slid across the bench seat to Liam’s side of the truck and turned the key one click in the ignition.

  She drew a long breath, then started pounding on the horn. The truck might be an old model and small, but it was loud. Myka flashed the lights too, pumping the brights, doing her best to make it look like a car alarm had gone off.

  The door to the house burst open. No light came on, but the tall form of Nate ran outside. Myka heard the blam of a pistol, a tinkle of glass, and a thump as something hit the seat beside her as she dove for cover.

  Another gunshot, and then sprinting footsteps and the truck listing as someone jumped into its bed. “Go!” Connor yelled, his voice muffled. “Go!”

  Myka started up the truck, spun it around on the road, then stomped on the accelerator. She drove, skidding, back down the dirt road, pulling up to a stop before she reached the highway. No one was coming, no one chasing them.

  When she halted, Connor jumped from the back and, naked, climbed into the cab, holding a wadded-up pair of jeans in one hand and a crying Jordan in the other.

  Myka hauled Jordan into her arms and held him close. “It’s okay, sweetie. I’m here. It’s okay.”

  “Daddy,” Jordan wailed.

  “We’re taking you to him,” Myka said. “He’s waiting for you.”

  Connor was jamming on his jeans. “Floor it. We need to get back to Shiftertown.”

  Myka peeled Jordan away from her and set him on the seat beside her, locking a seatbelt around him. “What about Liam? And Ella? We can’t leave them.”

  “Liam is busy tearing Nate apart. Ella’s there and all right, but Hannah ran off, scared to death. Liam told me to go, and also that he was going to rip you a new one.”

  “Diversion,” Myka said. “If Nate’s attention was fixed on the truck, it wouldn’t be on you and Liam.”

  “Yeah, but you nearly scared the piss out of me. Never do that again. I’m calling Sean.”

  Connor had his cell phone out, and Myka pulled onto the highway. Another car was coming toward he
r, its headlights on high beam. Myka signaled it to switch off its brights, but the big pickup roared on toward her, not dimming the lights.

  “Asshole,” Myka said, squinting against the glare.

  The truck neared her, its fog lights on as well, and then it swerved into her lane. Myka yelped and hit the brakes, trying to steer the pickup onto the road’s tiny shoulder.

  The pickup’s driver also hit his brakes, and the larger truck skidded sideways right at Myka. Connor ripped the seatbelt from Jordan and hauled himself and Jordan out the door. Myka fought with her seatbelt as the large black truck came right at her.

  She dove for the passenger door at the same time the other truck finally halted, inches from the door behind which Myka had been sitting.

  Myka crawled out the other side of the truck, her legs watery, her stomach roiling. Connor held on to the squirming Jordan, blending into the darkness on the other side of a ditch.

  Before Myka could ask if everyone inside the truck was all right, the door slammed open, and out climbed Gavan himself. He’d brought backup—three Shifters all as big as Nate and Spike, and one had a shotgun.

  “You’ll want to stop right there, bitch.”

  Great. Here Myka was, standing on the side of the highway, all alone, facing down four towering, hard-bodied, enraged Shifters. Gavan pinned her with his white-hot glare, the other three thugs ready to do violence on his behalf. What had happened to Sean and Glory sitting on him at the fight club?

  “I’ve changed my mind,” Gavan said. “Spike’s dead. I thought I could trust him, that we were friends. I guess not.”

  “You can’t kill anyone,” Myka said, planting her booted feet firmly and lifting her chin. “Humans won’t go for Shifters killing each other, or hurting humans. You know that.”

  Sounded great in theory. The human bureaus that dealt with Shifters constantly reassured the public that Shifters were contained, controlled, peaceful beings that wanted nothing more than to live in harmony with the world.

  In practice, here was Gavan and his three henchmen in a half-circle around her, filling her with terror. Myka had watched Shifters fight each other, ignoring their sparking Collars or at least not letting the Collars slow them down much. Nate had shot Ronan, who’d be dead if he were human, and now Liam was somewhere teaching Nate a lesson.

  At least Connor had run off with Jordan.

  Gavan was sniffing the darkness. He nudged the nearest thug and pointed the direction Connor had gone. “Go get them.”

  Connor was much younger than these guys, and maybe he could outrun them, or get to Liam in time.

  Carrying a four-year-old child through open fields? Myka shivered. Go on, Connor.

  “Get in the truck,” Gavan said to Myka.

  “Don’t think so,” Myka said.

  “Put her in,” Gavan said to his second henchman.

  The Shifter came for Myka. She whirled and ran a few steps before the thug grabbed her by the arms, dragging her back to the black pickup. She didn’t go meekly—she kicked, bit, and punched until Gavan grabbed her around the neck.

  His Collar sparked, but he didn’t ease the pressure. “You give us trouble, I’ll kill you. You sit still until Spike comes to find you, and I’ll let you go home in one piece. You’re right—I don’t want trouble with humans. But I’ll do what I have to do. Got it?”

  “You’re a fucking dickhead.”

  “Hey, I’ve been called worse by females who like me, sweetie. Don’t write me off. Now that you’re used to Shifters, you’ll be begging for more.”

  Myka kicked him. Pain flashed through Gavan’s eyes followed by rage.

  Shit-kickers, indeed. Myka’s boots had caps on the ends to protect her toes from horses who liked to put their feet down on hers.

  “You little . . .”

  Gavan grabbed her and hauled off her feet so easily it made Myka sick with fear. Humans were right to be afraid of Shifters. They were strong, bred to fight. Shifters who didn’t care, like Gavan, could wreak havoc.

  Myka struggled against him, but she knew she’d never win a battle of strength. Her only hope was Liam, and Connor finding him to tell him what had happened.

  That hope died when she heard Connor yell, and Jordan cry out. Found. Damn it.

  Jordan, in his wildcat form, was snarling and yowling as Gavan’s thug carried him across the ditch to the road.

  “Where’s Connor?” Myka cried.

  “I put him down,” the Shifter growled.

  Fear sliced through her belly. “You killed him?”

  “Dunno. Let me break this one’s neck. He’s a little shit.”

  “Nope,” Gavan said. “Need him intact.”

  Gavan carried Myka to the pickup and threw her into its empty bed. Myka’s breath whooshed out of her as she landed, and before she could scramble up, Gavan had slapped a pair of handcuffs around her wrists. The cuffs had been looped around a metal hook in the bottom of the truck bed, locking Myka in place.

  She struggled and swore at him, but she could only hunker there, sore and breathless. Jordan fought his captor like a crazed thing, drawing blood with teeth and claws. Good for him.

  “He’s going to shred me!” the thug complained.

  Gavan chuckled. “He’s a good little fighter. When I raise him, he’ll be my good little fighter. Hit him with the tranq and let’s go.”

  The thug carried Jordan, who sank his teeth hard into the man’s arm, to the pickup. The one who’d caught Myka rifled for something behind the seat. A syringe glittered in the lights from the truck, and the second thug punched the needle into the struggling Jordan.

  Jordan stopped snarling and went limp. The four Shifters piled into the truck with Jordan, leaving Myka chained in the back, and started up the highway the way they’d come.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Three motorcycles hurtled out of the darkness of the highway, heading straight for the truck. Three headlights fixed on it like the eyes of a monster.

  Myka, in her half-sitting position, saw them through the truck’s front window, and watched Gavan’s driver tense as they came on.

  “Run them down,” Gavan snapped. “What are they going to do?”

  The driver stepped on the gas. In an eerie repeat of what had happened with Myka in the smaller pickup, the motorcycle headlights came straight on. The driver hit the accelerator. The motorcycles came faster.

  At the last minute, the three bikes split around the truck, and the truck shot past them at high speed. The motorcycles spun around with a squealing of tires and a gunning of engines, and rode hard and fast after the pickup again.

  The truck’s back window opened and the barrel of the shotgun came out. Myka hit the bottom of the truck bed, trying to cover her ears as the gun roared.

  “Got one!” the shooter announced.

  Myka popped up again, craning to see. The bike closest to the back of the truck wobbled around, as though the rider had lost control. The glare of lights showed tatts all over that rider’s bare torso, blood dripping down his chest and arms.

  “Spike!” Myka screamed.

  Spike shot toward the pickup in a burst of speed, then launched himself from the bike to the back of the truck. His skin changed to the jaguar’s as he made the jump, powerful back legs propelling him. The bike spun out on the road, the other two bikers swerving to miss it.

  The gun came out again. Myka rocked onto her back and kicked up with her legs, her feet catching the barrel of the shotgun and knocking it aside.

  The shooter didn’t drop the gun, but the waver gave Spike enough time to grab the barrel with his half-shifted hands and haul it out of the pickup’s cab. The shooter came with it, his big body breaking the window.

  Spike dragged the Shifter rest of the way out by the neck, his hands right around the man’s Collar. Spike banged the thug’s head hard against the cab then threw him out of the moving truck.

  At the same time, Gavan’s driver hit the brakes. Spike dropped to the bed of the truck, l
anding on Myka, keeping her from being slammed forward as the truck went from ninety to zero in a matter of seconds.

  Spike’s hot blood dripped all over Myka as he closed one huge hand around the cuffs and broke the chain from the hook. Then he was gone, leaping over the side of the truck to meet Gavan and his remaining two fighters.

  Myka scrambled up, her wrists still encased in the cuffs, but at least they were free of the chain. She climbed over the truck’s tailgate, landing on shaking legs. The other two motorcycles roared up, the bikers ditching their bikes and running to help.

  Myka recognized Ellison, minus his cowboy hat, and Dylan, clad only in a pair of jeans, his feet bare. They both joined the fight against Gavan and his two thugs.

  Myka ran past them all to the open door of the pickup. Jordan lay curled in the middle of the seat as a jaguar, sleeping soundly, his little body limp. Myka lifted him as gently as she could and cradled him against her shoulder.

  She turned back to the struggle. Spike was fighting harder than he ever had in the ring, his Collar sparking wildly in the darkness. So much blood streamed down him, black in the gloom, that it looked as though his tattoos were running together and raining down his body.

  Gavan fought him, the two men changing back and forth from man to beast, dust and grass flying as they hit the ground.

  “You killed my cub,” she heard Spike saying in a guttural voice. “You killed my cub.”

  “No!” Myka shouted. “Spike, he’s okay.”

  Spike didn’t hear her. He beat Gavan’s head into the ground, and Gavan, white-eyed, locked his hands around Spike’s throat and started to crush.

  “Spike!” Myka yelled. “Eron! Jordan’s all right. I have him.”

  * * *

  Spike heard her shouting through the haze in his brain. Since Liam’s phone call to Ellison that he’d found Jordan, Spike had been running on fear and rage.

  Ellison had actually stopped the fight, walking between the two combatants. No one had ever done that before. The refs had started for Ellison, then thought better of it when they found themselves confronting the wall of Dylan instead.