by Lisa Ladew
A female rushed past her and Cerise pulled closer to her doctor, blindly following his lead. He worked there, so he knew how to get them out with the least amount of human contact, she hoped. He took a sharp right, then pushed a door open. Frigid air hit her in the chest, and she’d never been so glad to feel it. They were outside!
“My truck is this way,” he said, his strides so long and purposeful she had to run to keep up.
“What’s your name?” she asked him, finally daring to look up. The few people walking though the parking lot weren’t paying them any attention.
He slowed a little and flashed her that grin again, that thousand-watt one that made her heart flutter. “Beckett,” he said. “Beckett Oswego.”
She smiled back, in spite of herself, almost believing they could pull this off, that he was helping her of his own free will, that the world would treat her and Kaci well for once.
He strode between a truck and a car, then pulled open the passenger door to the truck. She stopped in her tracks and stared for just a second. The truck was green and huge, lifted high off the ground, with tires that almost reached her waist. No doctor in any movie she’d ever seen drove a truck like this.
She remembered herself and hurried forward, grabbing onto the handle of the door and a handle just behind the seat, raising her foot so high to reach inside the cab that she wasn’t sure if she would make it, then hoisting herself inside quickly, mostly with her arms, not wanting Beckett to help her.
He checked to be sure her feet and hands were clear, then slammed the door and hurried to the other side. He climbed in, then looked at her. “Where to?”
“The interim home,” she said hesitantly, trying to remember the address she’d been given.
“Right,” he said and twisted his key in the ignition, backing expertly out of the stall, and heading decisively out of the parking lot. She thought she heard tires squeal. The clock on his dash said 2:14 in the morning. No wonder exhaustion was starting to catch up with her.
“You know where it is?”
“5150 Northrock Blvd.”
She nodded even though he wasn’t looking at her. “What is it?”
“The interim home? It’s kind of a halfway house. A place for runaways to go when they can’t or won’t go home but don’t have anywhere else to stay. Sometimes, when there is crowding at juvenile hall, they will send non-violent offenders to the interim home instead, since they do have basic security.”
Cerise swallowed, liking the way he sounded, the cadence of his speech and the deepness of his voice, and feeling hope at his words. He had a slight accent that went well with his open face and easy grin. “What kind of security?”
Beckett shrugged, maneuvering his truck onto a main road. “People work there who do checks on the residents at night, and they provide structure during the day, maybe give them rides to school and work, some tutoring, that kind of thing. It’s supposed to only be a temporary place to stay for kids who have nowhere else to go.”
Cerise nodded. She could get Kaci out of there, somehow.
Beckett glanced at her. “What’s your name?”
Cerise stared at him, indecisive. Tell him the truth? Lie to him? “Cerise,” she finally said, feeling as shy as Kaci for a moment.
He grinned, making Cerise want to grin back. “Cerise, that’s beautiful. What does it mean?”
She frowned. “Mean?”
“Yeah, does it mean anything? Do you know what it’s from? It’s an unusual name.”
She shook her head. She had no idea.
He nodded slightly, his lips curling in a teasing manner. “Beckett means beehive. And no, my parents weren’t beekeepers, so don’t ask.”
Cerise clamped her lips together to avoid laughing. It didn’t seem right, considering the circumstances, but Beckett’s manner was so light, almost teasing; he was so easy to talk to…
A cop car sped past them, lights on, no siren, in the direction that they had come from and Cerise shrank in her seat, then swallowed hard. Definitely no laughing. Even if she hadn’t been a criminal before, she was now, and was she ruining this nice man’s life? If ever a situation called for dour seriousness, this was it.
“How old are you, Cerise?” Beckett asked, his voice twisted somehow, expectant.
Cerise waited until her heartbeat slowed a little, watching the streetlights speed past them in the dark, then answered, not sure if she was telling the truth or not, ashamed to not even know. “23.”
Why had his face fallen when she said that? Had he wanted her to be a certain age for some reason? Cerise had no experience dealing with men of any kind, except alcoholic, abusive, baby-stealing fathers, but still, she couldn’t think of one reason why Beckett would care how old she was. Unless he wanted to… date her? But 23 was over 18. “How old are you?”
“30.”
Her eyes traced his strong profile with new respect, and new awareness. So young to be a doctor. She frowned at the camouflage cap. She’d never seen a doctor wear a baseball cap in a movie, either. She knew movies couldn’t possibly mirror real life exactly, but she’d also seen with her own eyes that they did a good job of reflecting much of it. She opened her mouth to ask him exactly what he did, but he slowed, then turned the wheel sharply, driving down an incline into the parking lot of what looked like a house to her. Two-story, big, but nothing like the jail she’d been in.
“No, Beckett, not here in the parking lot,” she breathed, her fingers tightening on the door handle, her eyes searching for cameras and guards. She put her hand on his arm and pushed him lightly, the flexing in her mind rather pleasant now that she was knew what she was doing. Kind of. “Can you go out of the parking lot and find a place to park about a block away? Then wait for me while I get my sister?”
His brows furrowed as he spun the wheel, making the big truck turn in a tight circle and throwing Cerise against her door.
“Go out of the parking lot and find a place to park a block away. Wait for Cerise to get her sister,” he muttered. She studied him, looking for any sign that he was in pain; that she was hurting or distressing him, but already his forehead was smoothing out and that quarter-grin he always seemed to sport returning. If only she were a normal person who had met him in a different life! College or something. Or at a coffee shop. She could fall for him in a heartbeat.
No. She looked out the windshield and scolded herself. No matter how cute he was, or how nice he seemed, all men had a dark side. She’d never met one who hadn’t. You’ve met almost exactly zero men, the snide voice of her mother that took up so much time in her head said, so don’t think you know shit about men. She shook her head, ignoring the voice. Self-reliance was paramount. She was the only person she could count on. Her, and Kaci.
While he was driving, he pulled a phone out of his pocket and maneuvered it with one hand, holding it to his mouth like he was going to speak into it.
Her hand shot to his forearm. “What are you doing?” she asked, trying to keep panic out of her voice.
“I’m going to call my boss, tell him-”
“No!” She pushed, maybe too hard, but Beckett didn’t wince. “Don’t call him, please. This is our little secret for now, ok?”
“Ok.”
Phone back in pocket. No argument. Cerise breathed a sigh of relief, sagging in her seat.
Beckett pulled to the side of the road. Cerise looked around, realizing he’d done exactly as she’d asked. They were on a residential street a block away from the interim home. He turned off his truck, then smiled at her. She opened her door, looked back at him, wanting to push him again, to make him promise he wouldn’t go anywhere. You can push him too much. He’s stronger than most, so he can take a lot, but you still must be wary. You’ll either hurt him, or hasten the time when he becomes immune to your ability, as your mate must be. Cerise frowned at the words, or rather the feeling that had pulsed through her that had imparted the words. It had been universes different than the voice of her mother, more li
ke a knowing. But how could she know such a complex thing about a power she’d just discovered she had and a man she’d only just met? And mate? She didn’t have time to puzzle that word out, she had to get Kaci.
She shot Beckett one last look, then slid out of his truck onto the ground. She had to trust him. Not easy, but there were no other choices available.
***
Beckett twisted in his seat so he could watch Cerise run back the way they had come. She looked adorable in those scrubs. He ran his hands over his chest. Much better than he did. He looked like a first-class rube, especially wearing his work boots and cap with the scrubs. He needed something dark with plenty of pockets for weapons and tools. Something that made him look like the badass he was.
Beckett frowned as tension tightened him from the inside. He wished she had let him help her get her sister. He hooked an arm over the back of his seat and looked over his shoulder again to see if she was returning yet, then faced forward and frowned deeper. Had he really just popped her handcuffs and led her out of the hospital? He had thought calling Wade and telling him would be a good idea, but only for a second. Cerise was right, keeping it a secret was a better idea. If she had been his one true mate, all of this would be excusable. Wade would have popped her cuffs himself and led her out the front door and into Beckett’s arms. But she wasn’t old enough to be his one true mate, and although he enjoyed touching her, he hadn’t felt that first sledgehammer of desire, as Crew had called it when he’d explained it, meaning she wasn’t his one true mate. So none of what he had done was excusable.
Images danced through Beckett’s brain. Cell doors slamming. His badge and gun stripped from him. Wolven went to jail when they broke human laws sometimes. Or worse, Citlali could bind their shifting ability for good, leaving them as weak and vulnerable as any human. Luckily, that only happened with Rhen’s support, and Rhen was a soft touch for her shiften. For anyone really, sometimes even Khain, it seemed.
So why had he done it? Because she’d asked? Beckett knew he was impulsive, even hotheaded sometimes, and he definitely felt a connection with her, one stronger than he’d ever felt in his life. He wanted her. Plain and simple. Human or not. But that didn’t explain what he’d done. Maybe because he knew she was innocent? She hadn’t shot the gun, was being slammed against the wall when the other girl had done it to save her life. But still, he had to follow the rules, and normally he did. So why not this evening? Maybe she actually was his mate, somehow? Mine! The impulse to protect her, to take her in his arms, to claim her roared strong inside for a moment and he felt his fangs lengthen. He clamped control around his wolf, dismissing the thought, the instinct, as best he could. Something told him if she saw him like that, under the influence of any instinct that would make him react violently to innocent males around him like he’d seen his pack-mates do with a new mate, she’d ghost on him before he knew what was happening. But… she wasn’t his mate. So why was he feeling this way?
He sighed and dropped his head onto the seat behind him. Everything had seemed to make so much sense when she’d been there with him in his truck, seemed to be the only possible option, but now, nothing made sense to him anymore.
He looked through the rear window of the truck again, hearing a dog bark, loud in the sleeping neighborhood. It stopped and he tried to relax in his seat. Cerise would be back soon. Then his inner tension would ease.
A small white sign in the grass between the road and the sidewalk ten feet ahead of him caught his eye. He got out of his truck to check it out. He could tell immediately what it said, but it made no sense. It only had one word on it, professionally printed.
Werewolves
Beckett tapped the brim of his cap with two fingers, then looked around. Twenty feet away, he saw another sign. He jogged to it.
are
Twenty feet past that one he spied another.
sexy
Beckett grinned. Was that the end of the signs? Nope, at least one more. He jogged over.
fuckers
Beckett laughed out loud, pulling the last sign out of the ground and looking it over for identifying markers. Nothing.
He pushed it back into the grass. Let some uptight biddies call it in to the station in the morning. Give them something to talk about for weeks.
He played the message over in his head, wondering who had crafted it. Werewolves are sexy fuckers. He didn’t know about the rest of them, but the message fit him just fine.
Wondering if Cerise thought so, he headed back to his truck to wait for her and the sweet calmness she brought with her.
Chapter 16
Cerise walked quickly across the grass that led to the interim home, feeling clumsy in her prison-issue boots, so different than the light canvas tennies she usually wore. The boots had no holes in them, so technically they were superior, but she hadn’t gotten used to their weight yet.
Her gaze crawled over the interim home as she tried to work out what to do. No bars marred the windows, but she did see motion lights near the corners. The house was down in a severe dip on the corner and hidden almost completely from the traffic driving by, and if she approached from the side maybe she could get up to the wall along the back without triggering any motion lights. Myles had put motion lights up at their place, but she and Kaci knew all of the blind spots by heart.
She headed straight for the side wall of the place, running her fingers along the chain-link fence of the dark house directly next to the interim home, then almost shrieked as a dog rushed out a doggy door in the wall of that house and began to bark at her. Cerise froze, then ran down the hill that led to the interim home, feeling like every person in the neighborhood would soon be peeking out windows, trying to figure out what was going on. On instinct, she pushed, the flex in her mind rippling outward toward the dog. Stop barking! She put a hand to her temple, as a dull ache started then stopped there, but breathed easier immediately when the jarring noise stopped and the night became quiet once more. Could she control animals too?
Cerise frowned, crouching slightly, knowing she needed to move quickly, but sudden realization flooded her, pinning her in place for just a moment. Zeus had always listened to her, never to Kaci. She had no idea how to command a horse with reins and a saddle and whip (yuck), but Zeus had always seemed to read her mind to some degree, knowing when she wanted to go faster or slower, or even backwards. She’d known she had a knack with horses from the first day he’d shown up in their yard, hungry, thirsty, but obviously seeking human contact. Had she been pushing him all along, and not knowing it?
The dog barked once, a warning bark, then made a small noise that sounded like it was about to start growling. Cerise scrambled up the hill. She needed to touch it. Pushing from afar just wasn’t as good.
It was medium-sized, black, with dark, liquid eyes and a tail held straight out, only wagging at the tip. It’s ears were laid back, but twitching, much like Zeus’s did when he was on high alert. She didn’t know enough about dogs to interpret any of that, but she knew she had to move quickly.
“Hey, boy,” she said in a soft voice. “I won’t hurt you. I won’t come in your yard.” She put her hand up, over the plane of the fence, fear spurting through her when his teeth appeared and he crouched slightly. She pushed immediately, before she got any closer. Don’t bite me. Stay calm, don’t bark. I’m friendly. The dog’s ears relaxed and his face opened, while his tail and back end began to wiggle broadly.
Cerise felt like sagging in relief, but instead, she moved her hand to his head to pet him. He jumped on the fence to get closer to her, making it jingle. Cerise jerked her head up, searching windows in all the houses nearby for signs that anyone was watching. She didn’t see any. Now what to tell this dog…?
She thought for a moment, briefly wondering if she told it not to bark again, if she would be hurting it somehow, maybe making it not be able to bark ever again in its life? No time to worry about that. Just give it finite instructions.
Rubbing its head,
she spoke softly to it. “Go inside, go to sleep. Stay asleep until morning… unless the house catches on fire or something bad, then wake up your owners and get out.”
The dog dropped to the ground and stared at her as if confused for a moment, then it turned and went inside.
Cerise winced. That was a messed up command if she’d ever heard one. Straight and to the point next time.
She whirled, desperate now to get to Kaci, but how? She ran to the interim home, hugging the wall, glad for the solid-colored scrubs she wore. She turned the corner of the wall, staying below the sensors of the motion lights, then turned the corner and tiptoed to the first window.
Cerise peeked inside and could see the dim shapes of bunk beds, and an open door leading to a hallway. A bright light shone from some room at the front of the building.
Cerise swore lightly, then moved on to the next window. She would never find Kaci this way! The next window showed the exact same thing as the first. It was so dark, Cerise couldn’t even tell if anyone was in the beds.
Did she dare walk around to the front and talk to whoever was working there? Push them into getting her sister? What if there were two of them? Could she push two people at the same time?
Wait. What if she pushed Kaci? Cerise had a second to wonder if she ever had without realizing it, before the brilliance of the thought hit her. But how could she target Kaci if she didn’t know where she was in the house? The few times she’d done it, she’d been facing or touching the person. Except for the dog, she hadn’t been able to see him the first time.
But she’d always been able to tell, somehow, where people were inside a house, like their blood was full of metal and she was a magnet, easily able to feel their fields or auras or whatever it was she felt. Cerise pressed her back against the brick wall and felt inside the house. In the two rooms she was between, five kids slept, none of them Kaci. She had no idea how she knew that, but it was as obvious to her as the white snow under her boots.
She sent her feelers out farther, finding Kaci in a room on the second floor. Shit. She pushed with her mind, lightly, feeling the pulse of energy head out and up. Kaci, wake up and come to the window. Would it go through the wall? She could only hope.
