by Sadie Hart
“You little bitch,” Torres said, still coming closer. She could feel the anger pouring out of him. The floorboards creaked as his weight shifted forward, leaning down to talk right in her face.
It was as good as it was going to get.
Lennox launched herself forward and upwards. She yanked the blindfold up over her head just as she connected with his midsection. Torres gave a low, pained grunt. The little girl screamed, but Lennox caught her arm and wrenched her away, sending the child stumbling out into the barn. Torres hit the ground and rolled, his legs scissoring around her waist and sending her spiraling through the air.
Lennox hit the ground and rolled, catching herself before she hit the far wall. She was on her feet again before she could take a breath. Torres stood not too far off, his body tense, ready.
“Uncle Rulon,” a little voice cried in the background and Lennox stepped towards it, trying to put herself between the child and Torres. The other Hound snarled, his lips curling back to reveal blunt human teeth.
He looked tired, haggard. There were dark bags under his eyes, he’d lost weight. Gaunt hollows marred his cheeks, the thick, stocky build ridgebacks were known for—both in human and dog form—had turned wiry. His lean muscle mass had begun to fade. Lennox raked her gaze over him in a fast pull, tracking every weakness she could wrap her mind around.
The Torres before he’d lost it, he’d have kicked her ass without trying. He had on more than one occasion. Both in the training rings and after missteps on the job. He was a ruthless fighter, perfectly in control. The man standing in front of her now had lost a lot of ground. He lacked the extra weight and bulk, he moved slower. Lennox remembered the amount of magick she’d used covering her tracks at the crime scenes, covering for Kanon.
Torres had used a heck of a lot more and judging by Rulon, the dead kids, and now a lioness and a cub...he had to be running low on reserves. Torres flashed her a grim smile in the dim light of the barn, his wild eyes still sharp. “Don’t get cocky, Lennox. I can still beat you.”
She tilted her head. “Maybe. Maybe not.”
“Sawyer,” Rulon called out behind her, his voice raw.
The rot of silver clung to the air, making it hard to breathe. Her shoulders ached from being tied down all day. She wasn’t exactly coming fresh to the fight. Lennox licked her lips. She needed to get them out of here, just in case.
“Sawyer,” Rulon called again, somewhere behind her. She needed to look. To wake the damn lioness up and get them all running. But Lennox didn’t dare take her eyes of Torres.
Torres smiled. He knew.
“Rulon,” Lennox said, her gaze not once leaving Torres. “They need to go. Now.”
A growl snaked through the room, low and long. Furious. Torres hunched his shoulders and took a step towards her, like a dog stalking low in the grass. Lennox stiffened. “Any time now, Rulon.”
“Tilly, get your Aunt Sawyer. Go wake her up.”
The girl gave a small hiccupping sob behind her, but Lennox heard her move. Torres started for her and Lennox moved to keep herself between the lions behind her, and the Hound in front of her. “Gotta fight me first, Torres.”
He jerked to a stop, his body drawn straight and tall. The man that looked down at her had been her boss for years. She’d taken orders from him without ever once questioning the reasoning behind it. His gaze fixed on hers and she felt the stirring of magick rise through him, his Hound coming to the fore. Lennox pulled back a step, fear trickling down her spine like hackles.
The bastard would not pull rank here.
Shoulders bunched, Torres took a step towards her, his gaze locked on hers. “Back off.”
She felt the magick behind those words down to her gut, and the Hound staring back out at her was someone she trusted. Respected. Lennox swayed under the impact, but she didn’t move. Instead, she blew out a hard breath and roused the magick deep inside her. Her dog came willingly, confident.
“You’re not as good as me.”
“Maybe not. But I haven’t been running around the past few days killing people and covering my tracks.”
“I did it because of them!” He lashed out in the direction of the lions behind her.
The girl gave a startled whimper. “Aunt Sawyer, you gotta wake up. Please.”
She sounded so frail, frantic, behind Lennox, and when Torres took another step towards her, Lennox moved into him. She’d meet the son of a bitch half way if she had to, but he was not getting anywhere near those lions.
“They’re monsters, Lennox. You’ve seen what they do. No self control. Ruthless. Aggressive.”
“Kind of like you right now.”
Torres jerked back a step. Disgust flashed over his face as his lip curled back into a sneer. “You of all people should understand. You’re a goddamn ridgeback. A Hound. You’ve dragged more scum in than half the pack combined.”
And part of her wondered now, how many of them had truly been scum.
Torres leaned forward an inch. “You were one of the best.”
The last word left his lips on a hiss but Lennox shook her head. “I still am. I’m the only one who’s kept you on your toes for any length of time. Bet you didn’t think you’d have to work so hard to pin a crime on a lion.”
A soft groan sounded behind her, feminine and pained, and Lennox hoped it was that child’s aunt so they could get out of here. She took a step closer to Torres, watching the tension play along his shoulders, in the stiff curve of his neck. Dogs spoke more in body language than they did verbally, and right now, with Torres on the verge of a meltdown, his Hound was speaking for him.
His lips pressed forward, pursed, his body weight leaned into the balls of his feet. Everything about him screamed ready to launch, ready to fight. But unlike the cocky wolfhound bitch back in Utah, when Torres shifted and fought, the man would still be present. Torres would never lose it so bad that he’d go rage-blind.
“What the—”
A growl snarled out of Torres and Lennox watched as his hand flashed behind his back. She leapt without thinking, barreling into his midsection and toppling him over. He scuffled over the ground beneath, scrabbling for purchase on the barn floor, while Lennox did everything in her power to keep him down.
“Sawyer,” Rulon’s hard voice called out, somewhere behind her. Lennox heard the answering startled cry, the curse.
“Get them out of here,” she cried out, just as Torres rammed an elbow into her gut and sent her shoulder first into the hard, barn floor. She rolled, struggling to get her feet under her when Torres drew the gun he’d been reaching for.
Lennox leapt at him anyway. The bastard could shoot her all he wanted; as long as they got loose she didn’t care. “Now!”
The gun cracked in the small barn, a loud pop that burned at her ears. Torres roared as Lennox caught him around the waist, jerking him back. She saw the lioness shove the girl out the door, one hand on the door frame she turned around to look at Rulon, but the lion shook his head, exhausted. “Go,” he mouthed.
Then Sawyer grabbed the child from the ground and ran for the forest, disappearing out of the view of the open door. Torres thrashed in her arms, wild, frenzied. If Lennox had thought he’d lost it before, the crazed man in her arms was nothing like she expected. There was nothing of the old Torres in those blazing almond eyes.
Only hysterical, desperation. “Arianna!”
The raw pain in that one word tore at her heart. Oh, God. She hadn’t seen that coming. Torres clawed at her arms, leaving red gouges over her skin. “Arianna!”
He sucked in a hard breath, a shudder running down his back and then he turned towards her, the black muzzle of the gun tipped back for her face. Shit. Lennox dropped him and ducked behind him, sprinting for the door. She hesitated, glancing at Rulon when a gunshot seared over her back, burning hot.
Silver.
Lennox left Rulon lying in a pool of his own blood, half dead already from silver poisoning. But trying to carry him wou
ld only get her killed, and right now, she needed to buy enough time for Sawyer to get that girl to safety. Lennox sprinted for the woods, wincing at the crack of another gunshot, expecting the white hot lance of another shot tearing through her skin. No answering pain seared her skin before she breached the cover, panting hard from exertion and pain.
Left untreated, the wound would kill her, but it would take days. The silver eating through her blood, slowly weakening her, the infection excruciating. For now, she could cope. Lennox slumped against a tree and watched as Torres stood a few feet from the barn, gun at his side as he scanned the field between the barn and the forest.
Then, he tipped back his head and scented. With unerring accuracy, he turned slightly away from Lennox and towards the direction Sawyer had fled. With a grin over his shoulder in her direction, Torres bolted after the lioness and her cub.
Lennox took one deep, shuddering breath and sprinted after him. Pain lanced through her, the bullet had grazed the fat of her side, slicing clean through. It made running hard, each stride yanking on the sensitive wound, spreading the silver deeper. The harder she worked, the faster it would spread, but no matter what happened...she had to find Sawyer and the girl first.
Chapter Eighteen
Kanon sank back over the concrete bench in the waiting cell and stared glumly out at the Shifter Town Enforcement office at work. Hound milling around their desks, piles of paperwork stacked messily, along with a scattered assortment of office supplies. Nothing like anything he’d have picture Lennox doing. She seemed more of a slap the cuffs on ‘em, drag ‘em in, and drop ‘em off, kind of gal. Not the paper pushing, desk work type.
He ran his tongue out over his lips and glanced at Brandt. The wolfhound didn’t seem like a paper pusher either, but he was sitting behind his desk, a slightly more organized stack of paper in front of him, with a pen in one hand as he observed the conversation between one of his Hounds and Gaston Reyes.
Damn. Kanon hadn’t seen that one coming. He’d known he was in Colorado, not that far outside of Reyes territory, but he’d never had an inkling to see the bastard that had sired him. Gaston, like most lion-shifters, had always seemed a bit more beast to him than man. Kanon had looked him up.
Gaston ran a typical pride. A slew of females all ripe for his picking, he’d knocked them all up and gotten himself a bunch of cubs. But, as if a bunch of women waiting at home for him wasn’t enough, he’d also knocked up enough lionesses just passing through his territory to sire a small army. Kanon was just one of many little bastards running loose.
The corner of his lips tipped up in a wry smile. He had to wonder if it was the old man’s idea to let his sons all take up positions in the coalition and expand the pride, each with their own slew of women, or if dear Daddy had just been too outnumbered by his offspring to stand a chance at keeping his rank without letting his sons have a spot at the top.
Still, it wasn’t a life Kanon wanted. Taking up the Bayrock Pride with Tegan had been a mistake. New laws or not, when this was said and done, Kanon and Tegan needed to sit down for a nice long chat. He was sick of pride life. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the concrete wall.
Kanon didn’t need a pride full of women. The only woman in his life he needed was Lennox. Ironic, considering she wasn’t even a lioness. Hopefully she was okay and not dead somewhere thanks to a madman.
Soft footfalls sounded outside the pen and Kanon tipped his head only to see Tegan standing there, the dark-haired ridgeback next to him. She unlocked the door and Kanon waited for her to usher Tegan in. Instead she smiled at Kanon. “I’m Bree Torres. Lennox’s boss.”
He glanced at Tegan, noting the lack of cuffs and relaxed a notch.
“So far, your partner’s story checks out with our other accounts. I’m going to guess your side will match his.”
Kanon laughed. “Yeah.”
Bree shook her head. “Don’t think for a second I’d buy that if I hadn’t already truly bought what your partner was preaching. But I do. And that means that I have a Hound who’s missing, and you two were the last people who saw her.”
Genuine concern sparked in her voice and it bore straight down to his gut. He’d gathered, once or twice, from the pain and guilt in Lennox’s eyes that she hated not being able to call in and confide in her boss. She’d hated avoiding the calls. Looking at Bree now, he couldn’t help but wonder if the women were more than co-workers, but friends too.
“She went to have a look at the crime scene with the kids.”
Bree nodded. “Your partner already told me. We confirmed it with the Hound in charge of that case, neither Lennox nor Mel were found there, but he called the Hounds still on scene to have a look for the car.”
“For the record,” Kanon started, rising to his feet. “Lennox looked horrible every time she saw you’d called and she couldn’t answer.”
Bree’s face softened at that. “I just wish...” She stopped and shook her head. “Forget it, come on. Let’s go chat with Brandt. We need to get a search going and at least right now it looks like we have a good starting place. I want my girl back.”
Her phone buzzed at her hip and she paused, snatching it up, giving them both a wait here gesture as she stepped aside. Kanon turned to look at Tegan, his partner as worn out with worry as he was. Tegan gave a low grunt and sank against his shoulder, ignoring the Hounds that kept glancing their way.
“It’s like they keep waiting for us to chew through the legs on their desks.”
Kanon wrapped his arms around Tegan’s hips and pulled his partner close. “Probably a dog thing.” He pressed a kiss again the other man’s temple. “You okay?”
“Where the fuck is she?”
Probably no where good. Lennox, she’d always come back to them. Always let them in on the loop. She’d trusted that with a gruff order from her, they’d follow right in behind her like good little kitties. And they had. It wasn’t like her to bail on them now. Kanon rested his jaw in the curve of Tegan’s neck and shrugged. “Maybe she got scared.”
But he didn’t buy that either. Mel would have dragged her back, or at least have come back to kick their sorry asses for pushing too far. Tegan snorted, telling Kanon exactly what he’d thought of that statement too.
“I don’t know, Te. I don’t. Nothing good, though. Or she’d be back by now.”
“Bailing our asses out, no doubt.”
They heard Bree’s soft curse and turned to face her as she strode back towards them, her eyes grim. “They found the car. A block away, tracked both girls on foot as they skirted the scene. Then, poof. Gone. Their scents were wiped at the scene. Now, Lennox has the skill to do it but...”
Bree shook her head. Yeah. Kanon closed his eyes. There was no reason Lennox would have had to hide them both. He’d seen how her magick could drain her. “So, that means the bastard’s got her?”
“My current assumption is yes, but the Hounds on scene are checking further. In the meantime,” she lifted her phone. “I’m calling Bree’s partner and the rest of her pack. Caesar is the best in the country, if anyone can track a nonexistent trail, it’ll be Caesar Torres. Though, for what it’s worth, Lennox was his closest equal. She’s good. Whatever trouble she’s in, she can get herself out of it.”
While Kanon wanted to latch onto her reassurance as she dialed her husband, it didn’t do much to ease the fear coiling in his gut. If Lennox was this guy’s near-equal and she hadn’t been able to track the killer, how the hell was this Hound supposed to do any better? Kanon leaned into Tegan, feeling the answering tension wrung through his partner.
“Caesar, call me when you get this. I need you on the first flight out to Colorado.” She hung up, started to dial another number when a roar belted through the office.
Every Hound in the building spun, guns blurs as they slipped from holsters and turned to focus on the roaring lion-shifter standing in the center of Shifter Town Enforcement. Gaston Reyes had turned white, his body trembling as he clu
ng to the small cell phone pressed against his ear. Fury and fear etched their way across his face, but in the curl of his still-human lips, Kanon saw the first flash of fangs. Shit. The son of a bitch was close to shifting.
He and Tegan moved together when Bree struck out her free hand, one arm holding steady her gun. “Don’t you dare,” she murmured to them both. “The last thing I need is three lions shifting in this place. Don’t make me regret turning my back on the two of you.”
“We’re not going to shift,” Kanon said. They weren’t that stupid.
Tegan touched Bree by the elbow lightly. “But aiming those guns at him isn’t going to help him get control any easier.”
Bree stiffened for a second and Kanon watched the uncertainty flash across her face. This was standard protocol. A shifter acted out dangerously, they got a silver bullet in return. No second chances. It was what kept the normal humans safe, but right here and right now, Gaston Reyes didn’t look like a man who needed a bullet. He looked like a man who’d just lost someone dear.
Kanon opened his mouth to say something, to try and get her to let them pass when Bree exhaled on a long breath and lowered her hands, gun held loose at her side. She stepped forward, instantly taking charge of the situation. “Stand down,” she barked at her Hounds, and Brandt issued the same order to his.
He glanced at her, curious, but respectful. Willing enough to trust her, because she looked like she knew what she was doing. “Mr. Reyes,” she started but Gaston snarled into the phone.
“Who the fuck was watching them?”
The muscles in his shoulder were drawn so tight they looked ready to snap, but Gaston closed his eyes and inhaled, nostrils flaring under the heavy breath. “How long have they been missing?”
Seconds beat by, and the entire building waited. The muscle in Gaston’s cheek jumped, anger flickering across his face. “Answer me.” He paused for a second then gave a soft nod. “Put her on.”
