by Paige Tyler
He sniffed the air, letting his feet guide him toward it.
“Where are you going?” Zane said, moving up beside him with a confused look on his face. “We have to go through security to get into the prison.”
Brooks didn’t answer. Instead, he walked faster, leaving the parking lot behind and heading toward the western edge of the prison’s big perimeter fence. He scanned the prison facilities inside the fence as he went, trying to pinpoint exactly where the familiar scent was coming from.
Coffield Unit was one big square, fenced-in compound, with a large central building flanked by two tri-wing cell blocks on either side. The central building held most of the general-use facilities like the library, cafeteria, hospital, and visitors’ center, while the cell blocks housed the prisoners. Each cell block had its own yard facilities, but there was no one outside right now, so that couldn’t be what Brooks was smelling. Maybe he was picking up the scent of some criminal he’d put behind bars in one of the cell blocks. But his nose kept leading him west, not east toward the main buildings.
As they walked along the western fence line, Brooks noticed Zane lifting his nose to sniff the air like he was.
The only thing in the direction they were heading was the prison’s side gate and the small guard station that handled vehicles that moved back and forth between the inner and outer gate. Brooks had seen supply trucks and prison transport buses move through it plenty of times. One gate would open, letting a truck or bus pull into the checkpoint. Once the guards were satisfied everything was clear, the second gate would open, allowing the vehicle to come or go.
There were two big trucks currently inside the double gate area, their engines running like they were waiting for the outer one to open and let them both out. They looked like the kind of trucks that belonged to a laundry or uniform delivery service, but they didn’t have names on them.
The closer he and Zane got to the side gate, the stronger and more familiar the scent became. He was already getting a bad feeling in his gut when he finally figured out what the hell was going on. Both he and Zane broke into a run at the same time, yelling and waving their arms to get the attention of the guards manning the side gate.
“Stop those trucks!” Brooks shouted.
Either no one heard them, or they were ignoring them, because the outer gate opened, and the truck in front began to move forward.
“Oliver is in that truck,” Zane growled. “He’s trying to escape.”
“Jeremy Engler and Armend Frasheri are in there, too.” Brooks pulled his Sig .40 caliber and ran faster, the muscles in his legs and glutes twisting and reshaping as he went through a partial shift. “There are some omegas with them. They’re packed in there together so tightly that their scents are practically merged together into a single smell. That’s why I didn’t recognize what I was smelling at first.”
Jeremy Engler was a deranged cop who’d followed Khaki all the way from Washington State because he’d thought she belonged to him. The man had tried to kill both Khaki and Xander when he realized they were together. Armend Frasheri was a boss in the Albanian mob who had gone after Eric and his mate, Jayna, after Becker had gone undercover in Frasheri’s organization and destroyed the whole operation.
How the hell those two had ended up working together with Oliver on an escape was impossible to explain, but Brooks knew one thing—it didn’t bode well for the Pack or any of the werewolves in this city looking to them for protection.
He and Zane were still a hundred yards away when one of the prison guards finally saw them. The man hurried toward the first truck, motioning for the driver to stop. Brooks wasn’t in a position to see exactly what the driver was doing, but he saw movement behind the windshield, then heard gunshots. A moment later, the guard fell to the ground.
Both trucks sped through the gate, then turned left, racing away even as more guards came out of the security building and fired at them. But it was too late for that, and other than punching a few holes through the back doors of the trucks, the guards’ attempts did nothing.
Brooks and Zane were running at Olympic sprinter speed as they hauled ass past the gate and the few guards there. It was stupid to run this fast in public, but they couldn’t let any of those assholes get away.
Brooks shouted at the guards to sound the alarm as he and Zane raced past, but he knew it wasn’t going to matter. These weren’t a few dumb inmates grabbing a random truck and making a dash for the Mexican border. Frasheri had money and endless criminal contacts. Oliver was a man who had traveled the country killing people for years while staying off the grid. It was a guarantee that with those two involved in this, there was a plan in place to make sure they got away.
Brooks and Zane followed the trucks down the narrow road that ran past the prison. Fortunately, the rural farm road wasn’t meant for high-speed traffic, so the trucks couldn’t do more than forty miles an hour. That meant he and Zane could at least keep the vehicles in sight until they moved out beyond the first turn in the road so the guards at the gate couldn’t see them anymore.
As soon as they were clear, he and Zane pushed their shift even further, claws and fangs coming out while the bones in their legs and backs changed shape to let them move even faster. If it had been nighttime, Brooks would have dropped his clothes and fully shifted to his wolf shape. In that form, he would have caught up to the trucks in seconds.
But even on two legs, they were still able to catch up to the rear vehicle. Brooks made a hand gesture to Zane, pointing at the front tires. Zane nodded, slowing a little as he lifted his weapon and took careful aim at the front driver’s side tire. At the same time, Brooks veered to the left side of the road and picked up speed, drawing even with the cab of the truck.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the driver’s panicked expression. Brooks lowered his head, tightening up his right arm and shoulder, then charging in as Zane fired his pistol. The front driver’s side tire blew out at the same time as Brooks slammed into the door. That little nudge, along with the blown-out tire, was enough to send the truck out of control.
Brooks already had his feet back under him and was chasing after the other vehicle when the one he’d just tackled slid off the road and flipped over a few times. He and Zane ignored it, both of them more worried about catching up to the other truck.
He was already motioning toward Zane, planning to take out the second vehicle the same way they had the first one, when the back door rolled up, revealing Frasheri, Engler, and Oliver all standing there with automatic weapons.
Brooks wasn’t too worried. He doubted any of them were good enough to pull off a kill shot from a moving vehicle, especially as fast as he and Zane were moving.
Bullets sprayed in their direction, slamming into the asphalt around them, sending up the stench of synthetic wolfsbane. Brooks subconsciously slowed, recoiling at the idea of getting hit with one of them, even though he’d been vaccinated against the poison.
But while Brooks flinched a bit when the first few bullets impacted around him, Zane lunged to the side while running at forty miles an hour to avoid them. Brooks heard bones breaking as his friend tumbled head over heels into the nearest field.
Brooks growled in frustration as he slowed to help his pack mate. He fired a few rounds at the fleeing vehicle, but it was useless. The truck had already picked up speed and was pulling away. One of the omega werewolves with them gave him the finger as they disappeared down the road.
Cursing, Brooks turned and ran into the field. He found Zane kneeling in the deep furrow his body had carved out in the dirt when he landed, cradling a right arm that was obviously broken.
“Why the fuck did you stop chasing them?” Zane demanded. “You could have gotten them!”
Brooks didn’t answer as he knelt down beside his friend, checking for other injuries. Broken bones were nothing to mess around with. Werewolves healed fast, bu
t if the bones in Zane’s arm were misaligned when they did, they’d stay that way, which would only limit his mobility more than it already was.
He heard the sound of approaching sirens as he reset Zane’s forearm bones. The area was going to be crawling with cops soon.
“I’m fine!” Zane snapped, pushing Brooks’s hands away and standing up. “Let’s go check on the inmates in the other truck. Maybe they can tell us where Oliver is heading.”
Brooks got to his feet and followed without a word. While the omegas in the truck they’d flipped had almost certainly survived, he doubted they’d be able to tell them anything useful. Frasheri and Oliver were unlikely to reveal critical details to some out-of-control omegas.
As they walked toward the other truck, Brooks pulled out his cell and punched his commander’s number. Gage was going to shit bricks when he heard about the escape.
* * *
Selena drove past Terrace Grove High School, hoping to see Ruben hanging around outside. He wasn’t there. Then again, she hadn’t expected him to be.
She sighed as she watched the school disappear in the rearview mirror. It was beyond weird not to be in her classroom at two o’clock on a Wednesday afternoon, but it wasn’t like she had a choice. Another long argument on the phone earlier with Eva hadn’t gotten her anywhere.
So she’d spent the morning doing what she could, visiting those members of her class most likely to find themselves in trouble. Whether it was sitting down and watching TV with them, working through some homework problems, or even talking about the violence they’d seen in her classroom, it was about letting them know she was there for them. She’d even gotten sweet, quiet Marguerite to sign up for a session with the school-provided counselor, so maybe Eva and her damn school board would be of some help in the end.
But while she’d been able to see nearly all her troubled students yesterday and today, it was the one she wasn’t able to find who had her the most concerned.
No one had seen Ruben since Selena had caught that one quick glimpse of the boy Monday night outside the school. Ruben’s grandmother said he hadn’t slept in his bed in two nights, and she was terrified something horrible had happened to him. Selena was worried, too. She wouldn’t put it beyond the Locos to go after Ruben in some kind of twisted retribution for what had happened in her classroom. Her biggest fear was that the kid was lying in an alley somewhere, beaten senseless. Or worse.
She turned her car onto a side street off Ferguson, doing a circle around the apartment complex where Ruben and his grandmother lived. Then she went to the next block up and did the same thing. Blindly driving around in circles, hoping to find the kid by chance wasn’t the most brilliant of ideas, but it was the best scheme she could come up with.
After fifteen minutes of driving around the neighborhood, Selena began to think she was wasting her time. This was the definition of finding a needle in a haystack.
She wondered if she should call Jayden. He could almost certainly help her track down Ruben. But she quickly dropped the idea. Jayden was a SWAT cop for the city of Dallas, not her personal security service. She would do what she had to do to find Ruben on her own.
Thinking about Jayden brought a smile to her face. That wasn’t surprising. He was incredible. Seriously, how many guys would have been as cool as Jayden after getting bitten hard enough to draw blood? Not only that, but he’d agreed to go out with her on a double date with another couple he’d never met. She was pretty sure there weren’t many guys like him out there in the world. Actually, she was pretty sure there weren’t any other guys like him. He was one of a kind.
Selena had been dreading her night out with Becca and Scott, but now that Jayden was going, she was looking forward to it. The club they were going to had some great music—even in the middle of the week—and while Selena’s main reason for going was to fly cover for her friend, the thought that she might get a chance to dance with Jayden had her grinning. Something told her Jayden Brooks could dance his ass off.
And who knew? After a night of getting all hot and sweaty on the dance floor, maybe they’d go back to her place and get all hot and sweaty doing something else.
There was a part of Selena that was shocked she’d gone there. She wasn’t skittish about sex, not even close. But it was completely out of character for her to think of doing stuff like that with a guy she’d just met. Since last night, she couldn’t get Jayden out of her head. She’d even dreamed about him. And it was the wildest, steamiest, most intense erotic dream she’d ever experienced. She’d woke up breathing hard, excited beyond belief, and filled with an almost uncontrollable urge to text him and say, Was it good for you?
She hadn’t, of course. Instead, she’d gotten out of bed and run for a ridiculous amount of time on the treadmill in the corner of her bedroom, then taken a shower. The combination of exercise and cold water was enough to get rid of all the excess energy she seemed to have built up, not to mention calm her hormones.
The one thing it hadn’t done was change her mind about Jayden. She wanted him. He wanted her. There was no reason to act like it wasn’t going to happen between them.
Selena was so caught up in thoughts of Jayden—and possibly getting naked with him—that she almost missed the group of people hanging out in the abandoned lot on the corner of Ferguson and Highland behind the discount liquor store and the tire center. She probably would have driven right by them if it wasn’t for the one guy standing head and shoulders above the others.
Ruben.
Heart beating faster, she pulled a U-turn and looped back around to slip into a parking space along the side of the shop that specialized in wine, beer, and snack food. Thankfully, it was relatively empty at this time of day, so there was nobody around to see a local high school teacher not only parking in front of a liquor store, but also slipping out of her car to disappear behind the place.
Because that wouldn’t look weird at all.
Selena stopped and looked around when she reached the god-awful, smelly Dumpster in the back. They were supposed to build an apartment complex on the empty lot in the future, but for now, it was simply a piece land where the neighborhood kids played tag and sometimes tossed around a football. Older kids and adults used the lot as a playground, too. Unfortunately, their games usually involved drugs.
As she neared the group of people near the privacy fence, she saw there were eight boys and three girls. She recognized all of the girls and two of the boys besides Ruben. Both of the boys and one of the girls had dropped out of Terrace Grove more than two years ago and were involved in the gangs. The other two girls weren’t in any of Selena’s classes, but she knew they’d started skipping school lately. Unless something changed, those two would end up in the gangs before the school year was out.
When people thought about gangs, they assumed only guys got involved in them. Unfortunately, that wasn’t true. These days, girls and women accounted for as much as ten percent of the local gang population, and they were just as involved in crime and violence as their male counterparts. Many times, the women would be stuck carrying the gang’s weapons or drugs so when the cops caught them, the women were the ones who ended up going to jail. Even worse, the gangs frequently put their female members out on the street to make money or used them for their own entertainment. In some ways, being in a gang was tougher on the women than the men. But the gangs kept recruiting them, and the girls kept joining.
Selena squared her shoulders and walked right into the middle of the little get-together, ignoring everyone else as she approached Ruben. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught some of the guys regarding her with interest. One hooted, asking if she was there to have a good time. But most of the people in the group looked at her with barely disguised annoyance.
When she didn’t respond to the catcalling, the oldest guy among them reached out to grab her arm. Anger immediately surged in her, and she smacked his hand
aside as she stopped in front of Ruben.
“What are you doing here, Ruben?” she asked. “Your grandmother has been worried sick about you. I’ve been worried about you, too.”
For a moment, the Ruben she knew, the big kid with the good heart, had the decency to at least look chagrined. But then he seemed to realize he had an audience, and his face changed, taking on a casual, unconcerned expression. “I was just hanging out with my friends. It’s not a big deal.”
Friends? Since when?
Selena bit her tongue, almost drawing blood as she tried to quell the rising wave of fury rushing through her. She wanted to ask if this had something to do with Pablo, but stopped herself. Of course it did. Ruben had resisted the pull of the gangs for years, but then two days after seeing Pablo get shot, he was standing on the corner with Pablo’s gangbanger friends.
More frustration and anger clawed its way up from her stomach, and she had to force herself to take a breath. Her emotions were getting the best of her, dammit. Yelling at Ruben wouldn’t do any good.
“Not a big deal,” she said. “You stay away from home for two nights without letting your grandmother know where you are, and you think it’s not a big deal? Is that the way you treat the woman who took you in and cared for you since you were five?”
She kept her voice soft, but it was difficult. Ruben’s grandmother was almost seventy but still worked, because that was the only way she could cover the cost of raising a teenager with an appetite like his. To his credit, Ruben hung his head a little at her jab, and Selena could almost feel the shame rolling off him.
Selena was this close to taking his hand and getting him the hell out of there, but the guy who’d tried to grab her arm before wedged himself in between her and Ruben, forcing her to take a step back unless she wanted him right in her face.
