by Dena Christy
The man who had tried to break in only yesterday, who’d sat across from her at the bar and poured lies into her ear about who he was, stood in her hallway with a gun pointed at her. She looked from the gun to him and an odd feeling of calm stole over her. There was only one thing she could think of and that thought came spilling out of her mouth.
“Who the fuck are you and what the fuck do you want?”
“So you figured out that I’m not dear, old dad? I was wondering when that would happen. I will admit that I took a chance claiming to be him. I thought for sure that you would call me a liar.” He waved the gun to indicate that she should step out of the hall and away from her means of escape. She looked at the slightly ajar garage door for one tempting second. “You can try to run. A slip of a thing like you might be able to outrun an old wolf like me, but I doubt you’ll outrun the bullet I’ll send flying your way if you try it.”
She turned her gaze back to him and stiffened her spine. “And how do I know that you won’t shoot me while I’m inside?”
He laughed for a second. “You don’t. But I can guarantee you that you’ll be alive until I get what I came here for. And who knows, if you cooperate, I just might let you live. Now be a good girl and get away from the door.”
His tone of voice might cajole but the look in his eyes was far from it. They were the eyes of a killer and she knew it was safe to assume that even if she cooperated with him, she was dead.
While it might be tempting to run and take her chances on outrunning a bullet, she knew something that he didn’t.
Two things, actually.
Alex was on his way over, and since there was a lot of cold air coming from the garage, she hoped that whoever this guy was hadn’t shut the garage door. Hopefully, Alex would see it standing open and know something was up.
The barking dog she’d heard when she’d come out of the basement meant that Mrs. Fowler would call the police. Luke would be here soon too.
As she walked in the direction away from the door, she told herself that she could get through this alive if she kept him talking long enough for either Luke or Alex to get here. So she took a gamble and went into her living room with him following behind.
“How did you know about my dad? Why go through the bother of pretending to be him?” She stopped in the middle of the room and turned around to face him. She folded her arms around herself, to keep herself from trembling. She was scared, more frightened than she’d ever been in her life but she’d be damned if she’d let him see it.
“All I wanted to do when I showed up here the first time was to get in the house. I had been hoping that I’d find the house empty but you were home so I had to think quick on my feet. You wouldn’t have been stupid enough to believe that I was a salesman, so I took a chance that maybe you’d been too little to remember what your dad looked like. And I was right.”
Since he was standing here having finally broken in, and the whole charade had been so he could get in here, what the hell was it he wanted in the house?
“And why were you so hot to get in the house? And why didn’t you just force your way in that first day.”
“I couldn’t exactly force my way in with that noisy old bitch watching us.” He turned and glared toward Mrs. Fowler’s house. “And I tried twice to get in here when you were shacking up with lover boy, and each time that stupid dog would bark and the old bitch would call the cops.”
“So you had to think of a way to get in here without involving the police and you thought the best way to do that was to pretend to be my father? To pretend that you wanted to get to know me?”
“I was stuck in a ruse and went with it. I wouldn’t have had to if it hadn’t been for that prick, Nathan. If you want to blame someone for the predicament you’re in, you can lay it on his doorstep.” He gave her a smile that was pure malice and she shivered. “Well, you could if he wasn’t dead already.”
It clicked into place, why he was here and why he’d been so eager to get in the house. Nathan had been on the run from the council, and perhaps whoever had helped him escape had wanted to make sure that the council never found him.
“You killed Nathan. Who the fuck are you?” He’d been good enough at his job to make it look like an accident, which sent another shiver down her spine.
“Careful missy. I haven’t decided if I want to kill you yet. You don’t want to know too much and make your continued breathing a remote possibility. You can call me Mike. It’s not my real name but it will keep things nice and friendly if we are on a somewhat first name basis.” He narrowed his eyes for a second. “You figure out why I’m here yet?”
“I think I have. A couple of days before you showed up, he broke into my house. I couldn’t figure out why, since he didn’t attack me and he didn’t steal anything. I thought at first that maybe he had the same problem that you did, and Mrs. Fowler’s dog spooked him enough to send him running back out. But with you being so desperate to get in here, I’m thinking that he didn’t break in to take something, he broke in to leave something.”
His face lit up for a second.
“Bingo. Give the lady a prize. Our dear friend Nathan left some sensitive information in your house, the kind of information that my employer wouldn’t want to be found. He told me about it when I found him. I think he thought it gave him leverage to get him out of his predicament. It didn’t but my employer is a stickler and wouldn’t like anything like that lying around. And unfortunately, Nathan didn’t get around to telling me where it was so I'm hoping you can help with that. Then I’ll be on my way and you can pretend that you’ve never seen me.”
Mercy swallowed for a second. She had no idea what Nathan had left in the house. Until a few moments ago she had no idea that’d he’d left anything at all. Perhaps he’d been hoping to retrieve it once the heat was off, or find some way to tell her that it was there.
She gave her head a little shake. “I don’t know what he left. I ran the second I knew he had broken in and haven’t been back since yesterday. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I have found nothing. Maybe Nathan lied to you to keep you from killing him.”
He frowned at her. “He seemed very sincere. You sure you aren’t the one who’s lying? As unlikely as it may seem, I like you. I wouldn’t want to have to hurt you to get what I want.”
“If I knew where it was or what it was, I’d hand it over to you.”
“That’s really too bad. I really don’t want to hurt you. You are a chip off the old block so to speak. It’d be a shame to have the same thing happen to you that happened to your daddy.”
Mercy went cold all over. “What do you mean, what happened to my dad? Did you know him?”
“How do you think I could lie so smoothly about why dear old Dwight left his mate and baby girl? I’ve found throughout my rather checkered career that the best lies have a grain of truth to them. Your father got himself in too deep with a scary man. The lie came from me pretending he survivied.”
So her father hadn’t left because he wanted to? She’d deal with what that meant once she survived this. If she survived this.
A tiny noise came to her, a small tic, like a claw hitting a wooden floor. Her eyes flew to Mike, but it was plain that he hadn’t heard it. And for a second she wasn’t sure she had either.
“Now, how ‘bout we put our heads together and figure out where that prick hid whatever he hid in this house? Then I can be on my way and you can go back to living your life. What do you say?” He raised the gun a little, pointing it just above her folded arms. If he fired now, she was sure the bullet would tear its way into her heart. “I think it’s a generous offer because I can just as easily tear this house apart with your dead body laying here in the living room. It’s up to you.”
She looked at him, looked at the gun and looked away. In the doorway to the living room, she saw him. A huge wolf stood in the hall, his muscles trembling under his fur and she knew that she’d bought herself enough time for Alex to arriv
e. And arrive he had, and he was prepared to kill to save her.
She looked back at Mike and smiled at him. He smiled back and she could see by the look in his eyes that he thought he’d won. He didn’t know the danger that lurked behind him as Alex silently stalked toward him.
“How about you take that gun and shove it up your ass?” She used her sweetest voice to ask that question, and he paused for a second as his brain tried to match her words with the tone she’d used. His lips curled into a snarl.
He gave a sniff of the air and suspicion darkened his eyes and she knew that he’d finally gotten a whiff of Alex’s scent.
He turned his body with the hand holding the gun extended, and she knew that he intended to shoot Alex.
It was his first mistake.
With a vicious growl, Alex sprang at him, sinking his jaws around the flesh of his arm.
With a pained yell, Mike swung his other fist and hit the top of Alex’s skull, but it did nothing to slow Alex down. He gave a vicious shake of his head, and the gun tumbled out of Mike’s hand and clattered to the floor.
Mercy scrambled forward and picked it up. She moved out of the way of the two combatants, and once she was safely out of range with the gun pointed at Mike, Alex let go of his arm.
“Damn son.” Mike clutched his arm and blood seeped out from under his fingers. “Wasn’t that a smooth move? How about we let bygones be bygones, you let me get out of here and no harm done?”
Alex’s lip curled back in a snarl and Mercy could see the blood all over his muzzle. He stalked toward Mike with his hackles raised, and at that moment Mercy knew that Mike would not be leaving here alive. In his wolf form, Alex was closest to the protective, animal part of himself. And that part would not let a threat to her and their baby go so easily.
Mike must have realized it too because he let go of his bleeding arm and spread his arms out. “Well, even if I get out of this, without what I came for I’m a dead man. I’d rather go quick. So come on, do your worst.”
Mike closed his eyes just as Alex leaped at him. Mercy turned her gaze away just as Alex’s jaws were going around Mike’s neck.
It was over in a matter of moments, and she knew it was done when she felt Alex come stand by her side. She put her hand on his back, her fingers burying themselves in the thick silk of his fur.
“Well, looks like I’m late for the party.” Luke came to stand in the door. He put his gun in its holster and looked at the gun Mercy still held in her hand. “Why don’t you put that down on the floor. I’m going to call Logan so we can get this mess sorted out, discretely.”
Mercy stooped and put the gun on the floor. She looked over at Alex, whose muzzle and chest was covered with blood. She straightened and looked at Luke. “We’re going to go clean up while we wait.”
She didn't wait for him to reply as she walked out of the living room with Alex padding behind her.
17
Alex followed Mercy out of the living room and as soon as they were in the hall he closed his eyes and triggered his change so that he was facing her as a man. She walked ahead of him, to the door to the garage where he’d shed his clothes as soon as he’d gotten into the house.
“Mercy.”
She shook her head and handed him his jeans. “Let’s get you cleaned up, deal with the mess in the living room and then we’ll talk.”
He pulled his jeans on and took his shirt from her. There was no point in putting it on until he’d washed away the blood that covered part of his chest and although he couldn’t see it, the lower half of his face.
She led the way up to the bathroom and walked in ahead of him. He followed her inside and closed the door.
“I’ll shower quick and get this blood off.”
She nodded saying nothing. Her face was pale, and she’d wrapped her arms around her middle. He wanted to hold her, to comfort her, to assure himself that she was safe, that he hadn’t been too late to save her. But he wouldn’t do that with the blood of his enemy on his skin.
The shower was hot and quick, and as soon as the blood was washed away, he stepped out, roughly dried off with a towel and wrapped it around his waist. He looked at Mercy and could see that she was barely holding on. He opened his arms, and she stepped into them.
He closed his eyes as he rested his head on top of her's and held her as tight as he could without crushing her. She trembled slightly, and he knew that he had to say something to soothe her.
“It’s over. I got here in time and he won’t hurt you again.” He had no idea what the hell had happened tonight, why her father would want to kill her. He only knew that when he’d arrived at her house, saw the old Buick and the garage door standing open, so premonition of danger had come to him. Thank God he’d opted to come in the house through the garage and not smashing through the front door.
“I knew if I kept him talking long enough, that you would come.” She tilted her head back to look at him and he couldn’t hold himself back from kissing her. When she’d called him earlier, she’d said they needed to talk. He hoped it meant that she wanted to work things out so that they could be together. This kiss would be the test of that.
He leaned down and slowly fused his mouth with hers. Joy went through him when she didn’t push him away when she returned his kiss. He reached his hands up to her face to cradle it in his palms as he deepened his kiss. He could stand here, kissing her all night, but the sound of Luke calling them from downstairs sent reality crashing back in on him. They needed to deal with the mess downstairs before they could move forward.
Mercy stepped away from him and he quickly put his clothes back on and they left the bathroom with his arm around her. They went down the stairs and into the living room, where Luke had covered Dwight’s body with a tarp and Logan stood beside him with a scowl drawing his brows together.
“Okay, just so we are all on the same page, why the hell was your father in your house with a gun and why does he now have his throat ripped out?” Logan looked at Mercy and Alex tightened his arm protectively around her. She gave him a squeeze around his waist with her arm and looked up at him for a second. She then looked to Logan.
“He wasn’t my father. I don’t know for sure who he was, all I know is that he’s been trying for weeks to get in my house. The night Nathan broke in he left something here, at least that was what he told this guy. It was some kind of evidence about who was responsible for that whole mess with Quinn’s murder. He thought pretending to be my father would be his quickest route for getting in here at first. And once he was in the charade he had to continue on with it until he got what he wanted. He broke in here tonight, held me at gunpoint and would have killed me if Alex hadn’t done what he did to save me.”
So he hadn’t killed her father? Relief went through Alex for a second, because although he didn’t regret doing what he had to do to keep her safe, it would be less complicated if the dead man on the floor didn’t have a blood relationship with Mercy.
“Do you know where the evidence is now?” Logan’s face had softened now that he knew some of what had happened here.
“I have an idea. I’ll just go get it.” Mercy pulled away from Alex and he didn't want to let her go. Too much had happened tonight for him to want to let her out of his sight just yet.
“I’ll come with you.”
She nodded, and he followed her to the basement. Once down there she walked straight to the laundry room and to an old cross stitch picture that was hanging slightly crooked on the wall.
“This thing never hangs right if the tiniest movement disturbs it. I noticed it was crooked the night that Nathan broke in here, and I think he may have put something behind it.” She lifted the picture off the hook and turned it over. She gave a triumphant laugh when she held it up and he could see an envelope tucked into the back edge of the frame. She took it out and hung the picture back up. “Let’s go give this to Logan so this can all be over.”
They left the laundry room and went up the basement st
airs. When they got back to where Logan and Luke were quietly talking, Mercy walked forward and handed Logan the envelope.
“I think that Lucien will want to see this. If the person behind it is on the council, then he must know.”
“Thanks.” Logan took the envelope and tucked it in his back pocket. “I put a call in for Mason and Rafe to get over here. We will make this all go away. As far as anyone knows, the new bartender I hired was just a drifter who has since moved on. Nothing happened here tonight, and the only reason Luke was here was that it was a false alarm called in by your neighbor. By morning this house will look like nothing at all happened inside it, but we need space to do our work.”
“I’m going home with Alex. I just need a few minutes to get my stuff.”
Mercy moved away from him, and he hoped that when she’d said she was going home with him that she thought of his house as her home too. He stayed where he was while she went up the stairs.
He looked at Logan and felt the need to say something considering that he’d created the mess that Logan would now have to clean up.
“I had to do it. He threatened her, was going to hurt her or kill her. I couldn’t let him do that to her or my baby.”
Logan raised his hands. “You don’t need to explain to me. I would have done the same thing if I was in your place. The only thing that matters now is that you take her home and tell her everything you need to tell her. Don’t think about this. The only people who know about it aren’t talking, and once tonight is over, it never happened.”
Alex nodded and went to the front door to wait for Mercy. His coat lay a short distance away, near the door to the garage where he’d discarded it in his haste to go through his change when he’d been intent on saving Mercy. He picked it up and shrugged it on just as Mercy was coming down the stairs toward him.
She had her suitcase in one hand and her laptop bag slung over the other. He hoped that fact the she was bringing her computer with her meant that she was going to be staying for more than just tonight. But he would take nothing for granted. Once they got to his house, where they could be alone to talk, he was going to tell her how he felt.
