Her face was pale, but she managed a nod and raised her hand, gesturing to her smart watch. “Called. Jacob,” she stuttered. “And backup.”
“Good girl.” He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. “I’ll be right back, ma chouchoutte.”
He retraced his steps through the shadows, and back under the bridge. To his relief, more New York Lycans had arrived, and he saw Arch hauling a once again human Jean-Baptiste to his feet and taking him toward one of the GI vans. Meanwhile, Cliff and Jacob had Thibault restrained with special reinforced handcuffs. But where was—
“Marc!”
The sound of Mika’s voice made him want to weep with relief. Turning around, he saw her running toward him, wrapped up in a coat that was several sizes too big. She hurtled toward his open arms. “Cher.” His voice hitched in his throat, and he realized he was shaking. “I was so scared.” His hands immediately moved down to her belly. Thank you for taking care of mama.
“It’s all right,” she soothed. “I’m fine. No injuries whatsoever, and I handed that bitch’s ass back to her.”
“I didn’t doubt you for a second,” he said with a weak smile.
“I got lost in the crowd, and I went looking for you. Then I got a message from Lizzie. Sent it to the entire team, telling us what was happening. We tracked you down here.”
“Lizzie!” He glanced back toward the parking lot. “I took her away, but she’s hurt.”
Mika’s eyes widened. “Let’s go get her.”
They were crossing the street when Wyatt came up to them. “Where is she?” His fists gripped Delacroix’s shirt. “Did they hurt her?”
“She’s injured.” He carefully pulled Wyatt’s hands away, trying to stay patient as he could understand what the other man was going through. “We should go see to her.”
He led them to the parking lot to where he had left Lizzie. She made a frightful sight, her eyes closed, sweater bloody and ripped to shreds. Her breath ran ragged as she struggled to keep from sliding to the ground.
“Motherfucker!” Wyatt snarled as he pushed Delacroix and Mika aside to get to Lizzie. His face was red as he knelt down, but he didn’t touch her, his arms remaining stiff at his sides. “I’m going to kill them!” he growled. “I swear to God, I’ll rip every—”
“Wyatt, calm down,” Mika said.
The normally unemotional Wyatt looked like he wanted to tear apart anything that moved. “Calm down? Look what they’ve done to her.”
“We need to help her.” Mika’s voice was soothing. “Let’s … you lift her up as gently as you can.”
“Watch her back,” Delacroix said as Wyatt gingerly slipped his arms under her. “She got clawed there.”
Wyatt tucked Lizzie against his chest, her face buried in his shoulder as he lifted her up. She flinched, but then relaxed against him.
“I think she’s already healing,” Mika said. “But we should take her to HQ. Medical will patch her up.”
As they all walked back to where the rest of the agents were, Delacroix leaned down to whisper in her ear, “I told you so.”
His mate rolled her eyes.
With so many mage attacks happening in the last couple of months, the Guardian Initiative team had become efficient at concealing their activities. In less than thirty minutes, they cleaned up traces of the fight, gathered up and destroyed all CCTV footage in the area, and dosed witnesses with forgetting potion.
They gathered in the GI conference room for a debrief since they had a full house, with Daric joining them as he had just returned from another covert mission.
“Our ‘guests’ are now locked away safely in the basement level of the Fenrir Corp. headquarters,” Arch began. “We’ll contact the Lycan High Council in the morning and have them deal with those bastards. The Alpha will toss every charge he can at them, from breaking the Constanta Agreement, to hurting Lizzie.”
“How is she?” Mika asked Wyatt.
“Resting,” he answered stiffly. “Dr. Blake says she’ll be fine by morning.”
“Good.” Mika turned to Delacroix. “Do you want to tell us why your former clan mates are after you?”
He stiffened in his chair, but Mika’s comforting hand on his was like a soothing balm. This wasn’t how he wanted her to find out about his past, but Lizzie had nearly died, and God knows what else could have happened to her, so he didn’t have a choice. He only hoped Mika would be able to look him in the eye after he told his story.
“The Pont Saint-Louis clan took me in after I’d been abandoned by my parents,” he began. “For the first few years, I was fostered with one of the older couples in the clan who didn’t have their own children. But the wife died of a heart attack, and the husband didn’t last for too long after that. I was just six years old.” His memories of Marie and Albert Delacroix were fuzzy, though he knew he was never hungry or abused. “I bounced around from family to family, but when I turned ten and my powers showed up, Remy Boudreaux, the Alpha, took an interest in me.”
Mika’s face went pale. “What did he do?”
He swallowed the lump growing in his throat. “The Pont Saint-Louis was more gang than clan, and Remy was the big boss. Ruled his Lycans with an iron fist, and God save anyone who didn’t follow his orders.” Robbery, carjacking, loan-sharking, drugs, human trafficking, running guns—there was nothing he wouldn’t do for money, and with a small army of Lycans at his side, he could do whatever he wanted. “When he found out what I could do, he put me to work right away.”
“But you were a child,” Arch said. “How could he?”
“He’s pure evil,” Cliff added.
“I had no choice.” At least, he thought he didn’t. “Remy used my powers for his own gain. At first, he would tell me to get into places and unlock the door so his guys could get in and rob the place. Then he asked me to start stealing things or leave messages for his enemies. If I didn’t, I’d get beaten black and blue. Eventually, I got tired of being bloody and bruised all the time, so I just obeyed him. Started telling myself I wasn’t hurtin’ no one. At least not until …”
His chest tightened; the air stuck in his lungs. But he had to say it. He looked at Mika, into the green depths of her eyes and prayed to God she could forgive him. “One night, he had me break into this house out in Lafayette. He normally didn’t come out during these ‘excursions,’ but he wanted to be there for this one. That night it was just me an’ him. We pull up to this big ol’ house in the suburbs, one of them mansions with a large gate and security system. It was easy for me to slip inside and let him in. We go upstairs to the master bedroom where this couple was sleeping. I thought we would just scare them, but he takes out a gun and shoots them both.”
Mika gasped, her hand tightening around his.
“I was shocked, I couldn’t move. Remy starts ranting about how this guy swindled him out of money. One of those investment scams or some shit, I don’t even remember what it was. We were leavin’ when we hear this cry down the hallway.”
The room was still and silent, the tension thick enough to cut with a knife. “We walk over and there was this nursery. The baby was wailin’, and Remy hands me the gun and tells me to take care of it while he waited in the car.” He closed his eyes, not wanting to see Mika’s face. “I walked up to this infant and I pointed the gun, but I couldn’t do it.” The anguish at what he’d nearly done ate at him. “I’d already killed her parents—”
“You didn’t, Marc.” His eyes flew open and he could see the fury and determination on her face. “Remy pulled the trigger, not you.”
“But if it wasn’t for me, he wouldn’t have gotten in.”
“What happened?” Jacob asked.
“I took the baby and ran,” he said. “Took it as far away as I could. Ended up in the next parish.” It was the farthest he’d ever traveled in the shadows. “I left it at the nearest hospital, then I called Nick Vrost to get me out of there.”
“The favor,” Mika finished. “For saving Xavier’s
life.”
He nodded. “But I had to get to New York first. I hitchhiked east with nothin’ but the clothes on my back, eating food from dumpsters. I was just outside New Jersey when I found a way to call Vrost, and he picked me up.”
“So, Remy wants you back?” Wyatt asked.
“Or dead?” Jacob added.
“They sent the shooter that night, but today, Alphonse said I would be coming with them,” Delacroix said.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Mika said. “Why try to kill you and then nab you later?”
“Perhaps they changed their minds,” Daric offered. “It’s obvious they’ve been watching you, Delacroix. They knew to follow you to the carnival and take Lizzie to make you obey.”
“What do we do now?” Cliff asked.
“We’ll report them to the Lycan High Council,” Wyatt said, his nostrils flaring. “They’ll mete out the proper punishment for the Lycans that hurt Lizzie, and then Remy will have to submit to their investigation.”
“That will have to wait until morning.” Mika stood up. “For now, let’s all go home and rest up. Marc?” Her eyes narrowed at him. “Everything all right?”
“It’s fine, cher,” he said. “Everything’s fine.”
But he knew it wasn’t fine. Remy was after him for some reason, and he knew his former Alpha wasn’t going to stop until he had what he wanted. The Lycan High Council had never stopped him before, and it wasn’t going to now. He would send his people after him, as many as it took to take Delacroix in.
If he only had himself to worry about, then it wouldn’t have mattered, but now he had Mika to think about, and if he hadn’t yet, Remy would eventually figure out who she was to him. She couldn’t be killed, but there were worst things than death, especially for females as he’d seen with Lizzie tonight. No, he couldn’t let anything bad happen to her; he’d die first.
She’s going to hate me, he thought, as a plan formed in his head. But he could apologize later. If he managed to get back to her alive.
Chapter Fifteen
Mika knew the moment her eyes opened that something was wrong. It was still dark, but her entire body was fully alert. Her wolf, it seemed, had woken her up, urging her to get out of bed. The space beside her was empty, but Delacroix’s scent still lingered there, faint, as if he’d been up for a while. When her ears picked up the sound of the front doorknob turning, she got up as quick as her body would allow and dashed out to the living room.
“You’re leaving.”
Delacroix’s body froze as he stood by the door, which was already halfway open. “It’s not what you think, cher.”
“Oh, yeah?” She marched over to him and poked his back with her finger. “You’re all dressed up, you have a bag packed, and it’s the middle of the fucking night!” Grabbing his shoulder, she forced him to face her. “So, tell me what the hell I’m thinking.”
“I have to go.”
“Go where? And without telling me?”
“I was going to call you …”
“When? When you were halfway to Louisiana?” The look in his eyes told her she guessed his destination right.
He raked his palm down his face. “Mika, you don’t know Remy. The council won’t stop him. Nothing will, not until he gets what he wants.”
“And so, you’re going to serve yourself up to him? Just like that?” Her voice shook with anger. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
“Because I can’t let him get to you!” His hands gripped her upper arms. “You don’t know what he’ll do. He didn’t even care about that child. He would have had me kill an innocent baby … who knows what he’ll do to you when he finds out what you are to me?”
“What am I to you?” she spat back. “Because I don’t feel like I matter at all, not if you’re sneaking out in the middle of night, abandoning me—”
“Mon Dieu, Mika, I can’t let anything happen to you. I love you too Goddamn much. I’m not as strong as you. If I lose you and the pup …” He choked. “I wouldn’t be able to go on.”
“Marc.” Oh God, he loved her. And she … “Marc, nothing will happen to me, you know that.” She reached up to cup her cheek. “I won’t die, not while I’m carrying this baby.”
“And what about after? You’re only invulnerable while you’re pregnant. And there are other things he can do to you …”
He was right, of course. And though she really wanted to rip him a new one, she had to put herself in his position. “Marc, I understand why you think you had to run away, but Goddammit, this isn’t just about you. We’re mates. True Mates, and we do things together now. Your problems are my problems, and if anyone tries to hurt you or our pup, I’m going to fucking murder them.”
His dark eyes stared at her. “I can’t let you—”
“Shut up and let me finish, Delacroix. I’m about to make a declaration of love here.” A spark flashed in his eyes, and she couldn’t help the smile curling up the sides of her lips. “I love you, okay?” She cupped his face in her hands. “Now, take your head outta your ass and sit down with me. We can solve this. You and me.”
He looked stunned. “You love me?”
“Are you stupid, Delacroix? Of course I do. I—”
He kissed her urgently, his lips smothering hers, conquering and taking, but also in a way, it felt like a surrender. When he was done, he pressed his forehead to hers. “I love you.”
“Then promise me you won’t try to leave me again.”
“I promise. There’s nothin’ in the world that could tear me away from you or our pup.”
“Good. Now, tell me what you were trying to do.”
He dropped his duffel bag to the floor and led her to the couch. “I wanted to make sure Remy never came after me or you ever again.”
“How?”
“I was going to sneak back into Pont Saint-Louis and put a bullet in his head.”
Just like Remy did with the baby’s parents. “Surely it’s not going to be that easy.”
“It won’t,” he said. “Remy almost never sleeps, and he’s always got someone guarding him. Also, by tomorrow morning, he’ll know Alphonse and the others failed in their mission tonight. He would have had them checking in every hour. Most people underestimated Remy. Think that he’s just another backwater redneck. But he’s smart and a psychopath.”
A deadly combination. “He knows you’re coming.”
“I bet he’ll have his entire place lit up. No shadows. He made me tell him exactly how my powers worked, and I’ve taken him into the shadows myself.”
“And you would have just walked in there?” Her blood pressure rose. “That is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Never said I was smart, cher.”
“Fuck.” She thought for a moment. They needed to take Remy out of the picture, without getting themselves killed. “I have an idea. And it doesn’t involve killing him or getting yourself killed.”
“Cher, there’s no other way.”
“You can’t just walk in there and kill him. That’s murder. The council will demand your head, and I won’t be able to protect you.” In the distant past, Lycans would settle things by killing and taking revenge on each other, but that only made it harder to keep their secret from the humans. The Lycan High Council was formed to keep peace and arbitrate disputes, as well as mete out appropriate punishments for Lycans who committed crimes or risked exposure to humans.
“Then what do you propose we do?”
“We need to gather evidence against him. Hit him where he’ll hurt, which means taking down all his ‘businesses.’ He’ll have his home secured at night, but what about other places? Does he have an office or a stash house?”
His brows knitted together. “I know a couple places.”
“Good. We’ll gather evidence and take it to high council. We can even offer to take Remy in ourselves. With solid proof, they won’t have a choice except to remove him as Alpha and send him away to the Lycan Siberian prison. Or worse.” If they
could find hard evidence that he really did kill those humans or anyone else, the council could order Remy be put down.
“I suppose that’s a good plan, but I won’t let you—”
“Won’t let me what?” she challenged. “I told you, we’re in this together. And the only way you’ll stop me is if you lock me up. C’mon.” She placed her hands on his shoulders. “You know this is an excellent plan. And there’ll be no more bloodshed. No more violence.”
He let out a long sigh. “All right, cher, we’ll try it your way.” His eyes took on a hard glint as his hands moved protectively over her belly. “But the moment you’re in danger, I can’t guarantee there won’t be any bloodshed.”
Mika was determined to see this through to the end. It was the only way she and Delacroix would ever have peace. When she told the rest of the team at GI what was happening, they all offered to help, but she wouldn’t let them.
“We’re already stretched thin as it is,” she told them. “And this is a personal matter. If things go wrong, I can’t have any of this blowing back on you or the clan.” She had also informed Lucas of what she was planning, and he gave her his blessing.
“You’ll need backup,” Arch said. “What if he catches you?”
“Daric and Cross are in Moscow doing an important job, so I can’t just pull them out of that operation. But I’ve spoken to Daric, and I told him I would only call him if we needed him to transport us out and back here.” Everyone in GI had a special token that was magically enhanced so either Daric or Cross could get to them in an emergency.
And so, Mika and Delacroix found themselves in Louisiana that same evening. Lucas had lent them his private plane, and they landed at an airstrip about thirty miles from Pont Saint-Louis. They rented a car and were soon headed toward the clan’s territory.
“Remy’s got a warehouse deep in the bayou,” Delacroix said as they sped down the highway. “It’s his biggest stash too. Drugs, guns, and God knows what else.”
Shadow Wolf Page 17
