by Shea Balik
Soren dropped the phone and charged Marley. He ripped the man from Gal’s grip and slammed him up against the wall with enough force to cause Marley pain. “The stalker just kidnapped Cillian, Shale, and Anson. If anything happens to them, I promise, you won’t make it out of this station alive.”
The fear came off Marley in waves. This went against everything Soren believed in as a cop, but he didn’t give a shit. The stalker had Cillian and he was going to get him back.
“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you.” Marley tried to get out of Soren’s grasp, but he held the piece of shit firmly. “It’s…”
***
“Uhm, guys. I realize you all thought I was joking earlier about having to pee, but seriously, if I don’t go soon, my bladder is likely to burst,” Shale told them after they’d been researching names for about a half hour.
Cillian had to admit, he could use the bathroom, too. “I’ll go with you,” he offered.
Then Case stood up. “Me, too.”
Both Ronan and Alaric stood up to follow their husbands. But Shale held up his hand. “Seriously, this isn’t a group project. It’s bad enough Cillian and Case are going with me, but I’m not about to have an audience standing guard while I pee.”
Ronan and Alaric looked like they were about to argue, but Case stopped them. “Shale’s right. I really don’t want anyone watching me. The three of us will go together to be safe.”
Even though he would probably feel safer if they had Alphas to watch their backs, Cillian wasn’t exactly thrilled to have an audience, either. “And besides, the bathroom is three doors down. It’s not like we’re going far.”
Reluctantly, the two Alphas relented and sat back down to continue to research the names on the list. Relieved, Cillian followed Shale out the door with Case bringing up the rear.
As the entered the bathroom, someone came up behind Case and shoved him into Cillian, who ran into Shale, and all three went down in a mass of limbs. Trying to untangle themselves so they could confront whoever had made them fall, Cillian saw a flash of metal.
“What is going on? Who are you?”
Cillian glanced over at the urinal to find Preston zipping up his pants as he started to come toward them. But then a there was a pop. Preston’s expression was one of shock as he looked down at his abdomen where blood was already soaking his shirt.
“Preston,” Cillian cried out as he tried to crawl over to the man. He was almost there when a hand grabbed hold of his hair and yanked him back. “Ow, that hurts, you asshole.”
Reaching up to try and dislodge the hand, Cillian saw the metal again, but this time it was pointed directly at him. “Move and you’ll be shot next.”
His eyes were glued to the gun, but the sound of a female voice caused his blood to turn to ice as he lifted his gaze to stare at the hooded figure of the stalker. She wore a large hoodie that covered her hair and hid her face in shadows, but Cillian could make out enough to recognize her.
“Why?” he asked her. “Why would you do all of this?”
Her lips twisted into a snarl and she jammed the end of the gun against his forehead. “Because Omegas need to learn their place. Not only have you people stolen my fiancé, I keep getting passed over for a permanent position to one of you.”
“No, you don’t,” Shale said as he finally was able to free himself from Case and rose to his feet. “You don’t have a permanent position because you suck as a nurse. In fact, you wouldn’t even have a job if Ronan didn’t feel sorry for you.”
“Shut up,” she yelled and threw several zip ties at Case. “Put Shale’s hands behind his back and tie them together with one of these or Cillian here will have a big hole in his forehead.”
“You know you’re not going to get away with this, right?” Shale told the stalker.
Cillian might remember her face, but he was having a hard time with her name. He’d never really worked with her, but he’d seen her plenty of times in the hospital.
The stalker smiled smugly. “I have so far, haven’t I?” she bragged.
“Yeah, but that was with Marley helping to hide you,” Shale told her. “You don’t have him any longer. The moment we step out of the bathroom, the cameras will be on all of us. They’re going to see you.”
“Shut up,” the stalker told him.
“I think we both know that’s not going to happen,” Shale was actually grinning, as if he was happy that he was getting under her skin.
Cillian wished he wouldn’t. Every time she became more agitated, the barrel of the gun was pressed harder against his forehead. Sooner or later, she was just going to fire the thing.
Once Shale’s hands were tied, the stalker ordered Case to do the same to Cillian’s hands. Then she tied Case’s hands. Waving her gun toward the door, she said, “Move.”
When none of them did, she put the gun to the back of Cillian’s head. “Move or he dies.”
Reluctantly, Shale headed for the door, but there was a calculating gleam in his eyes that said he either had a plan or was trying to come up with one. Cillian just hoped he didn’t try anything while the gun was pressed once more to his head.
“Stairs,” the stalker told them once they were in the hall. “And be quiet, or I will kill all of you before anyone can come to your rescue.”
It wasn’t until they were in the stairwell that Shale said, “You know they’re going to find you, Pilar.”
Cillian frowned. Even when Shale said her name, Cillian wasn’t sure he’d heard it before. But that wasn’t what made him frown. It was the way Shale had said her name. He’d really emphasized each syllable, which was odd.
“They might, but it won’t be in time to help the three of you,” Pilar said with way too much glee for Cillian’s comfort. “It was really great of you three to come out together for me. Soon I will fulfill my warnings to all three of you.”
Cillian tried not to show any sign that she was scaring the crap out him. Based on her chuckle, he was fairly sure he hadn’t done a good job, but he was terrified of what she meant. Shale and Case had been the other two Omegas she’d threated to set fire to. He’d rather be shot than burned to death. Talk about a horrible way to die.
“It’s taken me a long time to come up with a new plan after you forced me to kill Mika.” She shoved that damn gun harder against his head, nearly causing him to stumble into Case. “But it’s time for me to make all of you pay for your crimes. Then I’ll go after that whore who took my fiancé from me.”
“Did you ever think your fiancé just didn’t want to marry you, Pilar.” Shale once again over emphasized Pilar’s name.
This time, he was able to see Shale’s lips move slowly on her name when he turned to look at the door they’d just passed. Over the door was a camera. Of course, since Pilar had her face hidden in her hood, Jamal and the others wouldn’t be able to see her. But they would be able to read Shale’s lips.
Figuring it wouldn’t hurt to help, he tried a different tact then taunting her. “I can understand why you’d be upset, Pilar.” Cillian was hoping by being on her side he might be able to delay whatever she was going to do.
They had just arrived at the parking garage door when she shoved Cillian into his friends. “Shut up, both of you. Neither one of you know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“Bitch be crazy,” Shale murmured.
Pilar smiled at Shale, the evil pouring off her until it was almost a tangible thing. “You have no idea.”
Yeah, that wasn’t exactly comforting.
CHAPTER 15
Soren was shocked as he and Gal sped back to the hospital to see what they’d found out looking at the cameras. He had met Pilar and he honestly wouldn’t have thought she was smart enough to pull off being a stalker and evading detection for the years she’d been doing it.
“That bitch has been under our noses the whole time,” Gal grumbled. “I swear, if she had anything to do with Levan’s attack, I’m going to squeeze the fucking life from her body.”
Since Soren felt the same way if anything happened to Cillian, he didn’t comment on Gal’s outburst. Hell, if Gal managed to do it, he’d swear the man had never said a word to him about it.
His tires squealed as he pulled into the hospital’s emergency room parking lot. He didn’t have time to find parking in the garage. Before he could even throw the truck into park, Jamal, Ronan, and Alaric all swarmed his truck, throwing open the back door and jumping in.
“I have Jonah, as well as the computer guys we used to find Doss, tracking Pilar’s car,” Jamal said as he put on his seat belt. “Head east out the hospital parking lot.”
Soren threw the truck in drive and once more his tires squealed as he sped toward the main road. “Do we have a clue as to where she’s taking them?”
“No. Her house is that way, but I can’t believe she’d be stupid enough to take them there.” Jamal snorted. “Then again, what do I know? I never imagined in a million years that Pilar could have pulled this whole thing off.”
“It’s because she has a few screws missing,” Alaric stated.
Soren glanced in the rearview mirror at the man as the others turned to look at Alaric.
“It’s true,” Alaric insisted. “The same reason she was terrible at her job made her perfect for this.”
“You mean because she incompetent with the patients?” Ronan asked.
Alaric shook his head. “She wasn’t incompetent. She was fanatical that things had to be her way. When the patients didn’t agree, she would teach them a lesson. If you watch her work, she’s actually quite organized.”
“Why didn’t you say something to me sooner?” Ronan asked a bit angrily.
“It’s not like it occurred to me she could be the stalker, but since we realized who it was, things started to click,” Alaric fired back. “Don’t forget she has my husband, too. Do you really think I wouldn’t have done whatever it took to keep this from happening?”
The truck went awkwardly silent for several minutes. Soren breathed a sigh of relief when Jamal’s phone rang. He needed to find Cillian before Pilar killed him.
“Turn left on Whitaker,” Jamal told him.
Soren sped up since Whitaker was still several miles away. When he got there, the light was just turning red. Taking a chance, he flew through the light amidst horns blaring at him for cutting them off.
“Where?” Jamal said into the phone. “I don’t get it, where is she going?”
Soren might not know the significance of the location, but he now knew exactly where she was going. Not because of where they were, because he was certain most of this area were multi-acre lots with fairly large homes on them. He knew a few people who had lived in this area, but he wasn’t sure what the connection to Pilar necessarily was.
No. The reason he knew where Pilar went was because of the smoke rising into the air.
Punching down on the accelerator, Soren raced along the streets to where it was coming from. He may not know why Pilar picked this place, but he did understand her plans. She was going to fulfill her promise to burn Cillian, Shale, and Case.
“She’s at Mika’s family home,” Jamal called out from the back as the others held on for dear life while Soren zigged and zagged through the community to where the smoke was filling the air.
“Call the fire department,” Soren told Gal, who just realized what was going on.
“They’re on their way,” Gal told him after he made the call.
Now, Soren just needed to get there in time to save the man he loved.
***
“You’re kidding, right?” Shale mocked Pilar as she told them to get into the green house where many of the flowers that the stalker had given out could be seen. If only the place didn’t smell of gasoline. But it reeked of it.
The gun went off and Cillian was sure he would drop dead any second. It took forever, although it was probably only seconds, before he got control of his panic enough to realize he hadn’t been shot. His eyes had seen the ground near Shale’s feet spray up, but Cillian been so afraid Pilar was going to shoot him that it hadn’t really registered right away.
“Either get inside, or I put a hole in each of your legs and drag you there,” Pilar told him, this time pointing the gun at Case’s leg first, just in case he decided to dare her to do it.
Cillian learned early that Pilar was far craftier than any of them thought, because she never actually threatened to hurt the person trying to get under her skin. Instead, she made sure to threaten the other two, forcing, usually Shale, to cooperate.
Reluctantly, Shale backed up a few steps, but he still didn’t go all the way through the door. He knew, as well as Cillian and probably Case knew, that once they were inside, there would be no way out. With the noxious fumes of gasoline hitting them, there was little doubt that Pilar had made sure the greenhouse would burn in record time.
Shale didn’t taunt her this time, but he also wasn’t ready to seal his own fate. Cillian could respect that. He was carrying his and Soren’s child. No way was he just going to walk into that building and let himself burn to death.
Pilar must have realized that, for she fired again, this time, hitting Case in the thigh.
Case cried out and Cillian quickly put his arm around him to stop him from falling to the ground. Shale used the confusion to try and tackle Pilar, but she was ready for him. The gun went off again. This time, the bullet hit Shale in the abdomen.
Shale’s face showed shock for a moment. Then his hands went to his abdomen. When he started to wobble, Cillian let go of Case, who was already steadier, and put his arms around Shale to stop him from falling.
“In the greenhouse, now,” Pilar bit out.
Afraid of where she’d shoot him, Cillian helped Shale into the greenhouse, with Case hobbling after them. The door behind them shut and they all could hear something slam down to block them from getting out.
Putting Shale on the floor, Cillian went to work stabilizing him as best he could. The bullet had gone through Shale, which was good, especially since it appeared it hadn’t banged around inside his body before exiting. Hopefully, that would mean there weren’t too many organs hit, but he’d have no idea until he could get him to the hospital.
Case yanked off his shirt and wrapped it around his leg to stop the bleeding. “I’ll go look to see if there’s a first aid kit or something we can use to stop his bleeding.”
He’d barely finished when they all heard a whoosh. “She started the fire,” Shale said as he looked toward the door. Orange could be seen on the other side of the windows. “We have to find a way out of here.”
“You won’t make it four feet if we don’t stop this bleeding,” Cillian told him. Then he jumped up. “Case, you help Shale. I’ll look for the first aid kit.” He was yelling the words since he was already racing toward the far end of the building where a large cabinet was.
Throwing open the doors, he started tearing through it, dumping anything not useful to the ground. Relief flowed through him when there, on the bottom shelf, was a fairly large first aid kit. He just hoped it actually had supplies.
Running back, he dropped the box next to Shale and knelt back down. Opening the top, he nearly shouted with glee when he found pressure bandages. It wouldn’t stop any internal bleeding, but it would help stop the blood from leaving his body.
Slapping one on his abdomen, he and Case flipped Shale over and slapped another on his back. Then Cillian ran back to the cabinet to get two shovels and a rake. He handed Case one shovel and the rake to Shale.
“What in the hell are we supposed to do with these?” Shale asked, staring at them like they were foreign objects.
“Use the dirt from the planters to tamp down the flames,” Cillian told him.
“If we can get one area to not burn as much, we might be able to make it outside.” It was a one in a billion shot, but it was all Cillian had. No one could get there in time even if Pilar hadn’t taken their phones.
All they ha
d was each other, and hopefully, a miracle.
***
Soren saw the burning building as he rushed down a dirt path, not caring that his truck was getting scraped by low hanging branches.
“There.” Gal pointed to the left side of the building to where Pilar looked on gleefully at the ever-expanding fire.
Soren didn’t even think, he just swerved left and ran into her as he slammed on his breaks. “Make sure she doesn’t get away,” he yelled at Gal as he threw open his door and raced for the building.
The flames were just too strong on that side. He, Ronan, and Alaric took off around each end and met up on the other side of the building where it appeared some of the fire wasn’t burning as strong.
“Cillian,” Soren yelled.
“Soren.” The sound of Cillian’s voice nearly sent Soren to his knees both in relief that he was alive and terror that he wouldn’t be for long.
“Stay alive,” he yelled as he raced back to his truck and ripped open the cargo box he had in the back end. Picking up the two fire extinguishers he had in there, he ran back and tossed one to Ronan.
They worked together to put out the fire in the doorway on that side. When the flames were mostly out, Alaric, who had taken off his shirt and wrapped it around his hand, ripped open the door. All three of them went in, not caring that they were going into a burning building. If Cillian died, Soren didn’t want to live. He suspected that Ronan and Alaric would say the same thing.
Suddenly, his arms were full of the man he loved, as Cillian wrapped himself around Soren’s body. “Thank God,” Soren whispered. “Come on, we have to get you out of here.”
But Cillian pushed away and pointed to where Ronan was kneeling over a body on the ground. “Help Ronan carry Shale out of here and I’ll help Alaric with Case. They were both shot, but we have to get Shale to hospital, now.”
It didn’t take long until all six of them were away from the carnage. “You all need a ride?” Gal said as he stood next to Soren’s truck.
“What about Pilar?” Soren prayed Gal hadn’t left her to somehow walk away from all this.
