by Anya Nowlan
They’d found her. Not only her wolves, but the others as well.
CHAPTER TEN
Tex
“They’re fucking shooting at us in a residential area! What do you want me to do, roll the damn car and take cover behind it?” Tex hissed, yanking the steering wheel to the side and sending the heavy SUV skidding through a curve, tires whining.
“I see that. Get out of here as fast as you can,” Thatch barked, twisting himself around in the seat to look at Madeline. “Madeline, get down, you and the boys both. The glass is bulletproof but it doesn’t hold forever,” he said, his voice calm and authoritative.
How Thatch could remain so chilled out at a time like this was beyond Tex. Not only had they found the woman that Tex was entirely sure was their mate, but she had kids?! Twins! Obviously his and Thatch’s! And now someone was trying to kill all three of them, and him and Thatch along with it.
Tex could feel the adrenaline coursing through him, humming in his ears, threatening to make him explode. He had a quick temper, always had, and it had gotten him into trouble plenty of times. While Thatch was almost cold in his calculations, Tex was the polar opposite. Between the two of them, they evened out. In a situation like this, though, Tex was damn glad that he was at the wheel and not his brother.
He checked the rearview mirror, seeing two equally hulking black vans speed toward them with a man hanging out of one of the windows with a semi-automatic. Gritting his teeth, Tex made the car swing quickly on the mostly empty road, counting the seconds until they could hit the highway. He didn’t want to return fire in a residential area with kids running around. Not that he had ever enjoyed it, but suddenly it felt a lot more reckless than it had ever before.
Thatch was already dialing up Connor on the phone, his gun drawn and in his hand.
“Madeline, sugar, you okay?” Tex called back, looking at her huddled body on the back seat as he made the SUV roar up and over an overpass on his way to the busy highway.
“No! You think I should be?” she quipped back, visibly shivering.
“Probably not,” he confirmed with a mild grin.
Okay, things were completely messed up, but a really big part of him couldn’t have been happier. They had Madeline in the car with them for shit’s sake! She was there with him and Thatch, finally within arm’s reach again, and Tex could make sure that they never let her go again. The last year or so had been a complete nightmare without her. He hadn’t been able to make himself touch another woman since. Even the thought of being with someone had felt oddly like cheating, a concept which he’d never had a problem with before!
The things the love of a good woman could do to a wolf. Tex would have never believed it if it hadn’t happened to him personally.
Another hail of bullets rained down around the SUV, pockmarking it from the outside, but not penetrating. Tex had to give The Firm at least that much—they knew how to build their vehicles.
“Hemingway’s going to be so pissed when he hears about this,” Tex remarked as Thatch tapped his hand impatiently on the side of his cell, waiting for Connor to pick up.
“I think he’s going to be more pissed when he finds out that there are people having open gunfights on the roads in Chicago and that we’re involved, fucked-up car or not,” Thatch commented mildly as the call went through. “Connor, we’re up shit’s creek. We’re on the I-57, heading into town. Bogies on our back. I need a safe place. Yeah? No, long story. It’s bad.”
Tex’s ears perked, listening to the quick exchange. The Firm kept a few safe houses in many major cities and a few low-key apartment arrangements, but those weren’t an option. They’d talked it over as they’d picked up Madeline’s trail heading out of Chicago, getting other field operatives near the bombing scene to follow her until they could get a description and license plate of the car she’d gotten into. From there, they’d made quick work of figuring out where she could live, and they’d had the good luck to catch her friend leaving from the house.
Tex agreed with Thatch’s assessment that taking her back to The Firm while they weren’t sure what was going on would have been the wrong play. They needed a place where to ride this nonsense out, and where they could actually talk to her without someone trying to immediately haul her away from them. Hell, Tex alone had plenty of questions to ask Madeline and he was sure Thatch could match him blow for blow on that.
“Turn right at the river, into the railroad district,” Thatch barked, rolling down the window and flipping the cell into his pocket.
Thatch leaned out of the window and Tex kept the car stable for a few seconds, long enough for Thatch to fire a volley of shots at their new and unwanted friends. The first three missed the mark, Thatch being too careful to not hit anyone close to the vans, but the next one was a homerun. Thatch got one of the vans in the tire, making it pop loudly and the vehicle careen into the other van, almost shaking the guy with the gun out of the window.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Tex whooped, patting his brother on the shoulder as Thatch hauled himself back into the SUV and rolled up the window. “You’re not too shitty of a shot for a comms guy,” Tex mocked, grinning as he changed lanes and disappeared amidst the sea of cars.
“Screw you too,” Thatch scoffed, reloading the pistol.
“You can sit up now, sugar,” Tex called, watching in the rearview mirror as Madeline popped up on the seat again, the babies remaining curled up next to her where she’d been covering them with her body.
The little devils hadn’t even woken up! If they could sleep through a firefight like that, Tex was certain they had to be his and Thatch’s. Getting either of them up and out of bed for a mission was always an exercise in futility. He couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Heavy sleepers, huh?”
“Only when they want to,” Madeline admitted with a sigh, brushing her hair out of her face.
Damn, she’s gotten even more gorgeous, Tex thought, his grip tightening around the steering wheel.
There was something about a woman who’d had a pup that made a shifter’s heart race twice as fast, especially if those pups happened to be yours. Tex licked his lips, thankful for the moment of distraction. His mind was working overtime, trying to figure out how he felt about everything. Going from a staunch bachelor, to suddenly very much interested in a woman he thought he wouldn’t see again, to being the father of two new little werewolves was a lot to take for any man, gunfight or not.
He relaxed in the seat a bit, taking his foot off the gas pedal enough to pretend like they were simply another car in traffic, bullet marks on the car and all. They would have to ditch the vehicle soon enough, but that was something they were more than skilled at. The minutiae of a mission was something akin to muscle memory for them: it all came naturally. Matters of the heart, though? That was a lot trickier.
“I think we lost them,” Thatch said, squinting his eyes a bit as he considered the lanes behind them. “Unless there are other cars waiting for us, I think we’re good. So what’s our guess here? Same guys that we saw at the train?”
“Probably,” Tex murmured, letting himself enter this conversation instead of the very loud and confusing shouting match going on in his head in regard to Madeline and the babies. “I don’t see any other reason someone would come for her. Or have you been up to no good, sugar, while we’ve been away? I’d hate to hear that you’ve been having too much fun without us,” he said, grinning into the rearview mirror.
Madeline tossed him a look and he loved the little spark in her eyes. She’d been so damn scared on the train, yet she’d come out of it like a trouper, head calmly on her shoulders. And now again, she looked damn near unflappable, even more so than last time. If he could say anything, then it was that she’d definitely become stronger over the year or so that he hadn’t seen her.
“No, I haven’t been getting into any firefights if that’s what you’re asking,” Madeline said, sounding a bit miffed, but the little smile on her lips tol
d Tex that she was okay.
How could she not be? She was in their company, wasn’t she? Tex looked at Thatch and both of them smirked slightly.
Spunky little thing, he thought happily.
“I’m surprised they reacted so quickly, though,” Thatch mused, scratching his chin. “I would have assumed that it was a big enough coincidence that we happened to be here and watching the news at the right time, but the fact that these guys had operatives ready to roll out quickly? We’re dealing with someone really big I think,” he noted thoughtfully.
“You know who it is though, right? I mean, not a lot of options… those fuckers with the blue eyes? It’s not the first time we’ve seen them,” Tex commented, quirking a brow.
“Wait, what? You think you know who these guys are?! Why am I stuck in the Chicago suburbs then, instead of being with my parents in Louisiana?! Oh my God! Are you saying that there’s actually hope that I could have my normal life back?” Madeline asked, sounding breathless as she gripped the headrest of Tex’s seat and leaned forward.
Her scent hit his nostrils like a mallet to the face and he had to straighten the car as he almost veered into the next lane. Damn, she could distract a man hard and fast. If he wasn’t careful, he’d lose what little bit of sanity he had left around her with a wink and a touch. Theoretically, not the worst problem he could have, he guessed.
“It’s not that easy,” Thatch said, looking unflappable as ever, but Tex didn’t miss the way his eyes flashed gold for a moment. “The guys we’re dealing with here aren’t some mom-and-pop operation playing terrorists. They’re highly trained, prepared, and funded. There’s no way to really root them out. The only way you’ll be safe from them is if they lose interest, or if you’re not valuable to them anymore.”
“I thought that was what would happen after you guys figured out who they were. You and your… organization.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t bank on that,” Thatch said. “But let’s not worry about that right now. This minute, our number one goal is to get you and the pups somewhere safe, okay? We’ll figure out everything else from there.”
Tex and Thatch shared a look and Thatch nodded to Tex, mirroring Tex’s thoughts on the matter. The Firm was never out for anyone’s welfare other then its own. It was a small miracle they’d decided to give Madeline a new identity to begin with, something that Tex and Thatch had discussed a few times. The job had come to Thatch outside of The Firm’s contacts, but the fact that they took an interest told both of the twins that there was more to it than their employers let on.
However, with all things The Firm related, questions were strictly unwelcome and any prying was smacked down fast and hard. They hadn’t even attempted to go to Hemingway with any questions, because it could only mean trouble for them and probably a bigger headache than they already had. Not something either of the twins was looking for. Still, with Madeline in the car now, along with her two babies, it was obvious that Tex’s and Thatch’s interest and involvement in her life was going to reach an all-time high.
Hell, maybe Hemingway would like to answer our questions if he suddenly loses two of his best operatives because we need to drop out to protect our mate.
That made him pause for a second as he pulled off the highway, the word rolling through his head. Mate. That was what she was to them, wasn’t she? The one. The one they’d been looking for and the one that fate had promised them. And now she’d even mothered their firstborns. It was pretty much game, set, match, and neither of them had really even gotten a chance to explain how much it truly meant for werewolves to find their fated.
Damn, Tex thought, shaking his head. This got messy, fast.
And yet, he couldn’t have been happier if he tried.
The loud and frantic traffic of the highway was replaced with no traffic at all. They were essentially alone on the tiny side roads that snaked through the railroad district, seeing box cars and standing tanker trains everywhere. Looking at Madeline in the rearview mirror, he could see her tensing up immediately and her mouth tightening into that cute worried line of hers.
“You okay, sugar?” he asked, hearing a note of softness in his tone that he hadn’t been aware of that he could even utter.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” she said, her hand on the backs of one of the boys. “Trains, you know? They make me a bit nervous.”
“Can’t blame you for that,” Tex commented. “I never liked the damn things.”
Thatch just scoffed with a grin. Tex figured he was going to like trains a bunch more from now on, though. One had brought Madeline into his life, after all. They couldn’t be that bad.
“Take a left from here and then a right again,” Thatch instructed, the roads getting so narrow and obscure now that if someone had met them there, it would have been a bitch maneuvering past each other.
They took a few winding turns as the sun was beginning to set over Chicago, lighting it in a gray, yellow, and orange haze that seemed oddly fitting for that day. They finally dipped into a hidden underground parking garage, the heavy doors sliding open right before them and slamming shut immediately after them, the sound of pneumatic locks clamping shut music to Tex’s ears. Wherever Connor had instructed them to go, those guys knew how to set up a bunker.
“Home sweet home,” he announced with a wide sweep of his arm as he pulled into a parking spot next to an armored Hummer and something that looked like a damn Abrams tank.
Probably because it was an Abrams tank. In the middle of Chicago.
I love our friends, Tex thought with a chuckle, jumping out of the SUV.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Madeline
Madeline was practically jumping at every noise, creak, or crack that she heard as they made their way up a dimly lit ramp, Tex and Thatch each holding one bag, and Tex carrying Rhone in his arms. He was cooing at him and Rhone was clinging to his hand with his tiny, chubby fingers. It took all she had not to break down and become a puddle of mush at yet another one of her surprise babydaddies having a moment with one of her sons.
One of our sons, she corrected herself mindfully, pressing down the smile that wanted to reach her lips at that.
She wasn’t naïve enough to think or even really hope that something more could grow from this other than her boys getting to meet their fathers, but that in itself was a victory she hadn’t imagined even earlier that day. When Thatch put his hand on the small of her back and led her through a doorway, a spike of heat traveled through her like a burst of light and heat combined into one.
Dammit, their touch is still magic, she cursed under her breath, willing herself to ignore how good it felt.
Getting so distracted and caught up in them when there were far more important things to worry about was something she definitely couldn’t do! No matter how much she wanted to forget all about the dangerous beasts hunting her and her kids.
They were greeted with open arms by a short, plump woman with rosy cheeks and shining hazelnut eyes. She practically snatched Raze out of Madeline’s arms, squealing with delight and making the baby giggle immediately.
“Oh my Lord, aren’t they precious! And there’s two of them! Oh, Barkley, you didn’t tell me we were going to have the cutest little visitors in the whole wide world!” she said, squeezing Madeline’s hand with one of hers, swinging Raze onto her hip with the seasoned ease of a woman who had obviously raised more than one child of her own, and giving her husband an excited look over her shoulder.
“Well, the more the merrier, isn’t it?” the tall, hulking man—Barkley—noted, grinning through his bushy beard. “Connor called me and let me know that we’d be having some guests staying over. What’s ours is yours. We go way back with Connor. I assume you two are Tex and Thatch,” he said, nodding at Madeline and then turning his attention to the two men.
Almost instantly, both of the wolves straightened up, practically saluting the big bear when they recognized the name.
“Colonel Reims, it’s an honor. Sergeant Tex Cra
wley,” Tex said.
“We’re sorry to intrude, sir. Sergeant Thatch Crawley,” Thatch said as well.
Barkley waved his hand dismissively and then shook hands with both Tex and Thatch, grinning like the sweetest damn grizzled biker in the world. Madeline could spy at least ten different tattoos on his arms, and his sleeves were only rolled halfway up. He was obviously already in his sixties, judging by the gray in his hair and beard, but his pale gray eyes were sharp as hell and he was so fit that he could have probably taken the wolves on and given them a run for their money.
“It’s no intrusion. Connor’s friends are my friends. Call me Barkley. And this is Mary, my wife.”
“Pleasure, ma’am,” Tex and Thatch said in unison, Madeline smiling at the bright-eyed, jovial woman who was busy swinging Raze in her arms.
“It’s Mary, not ma’am! And don’t you forget it, okay? You think Barkley’s scary, you should see me when I get too many boys calling me ma’am like I’m old! Psh! And what are the names of these two little angels? And you, my sweet! Oh, you look positively pale! Come, I’ll get you some coffee and a muffin or something. Is your blood sugar okay?” Mary asked, swinging her free arm around Madeline and walking her deeper into the big compound.
“Um, thank you! I’m sure it’s fine, it’s simply been a long day. I am Madeline. The boy you’re holding is Raze and the other hellion is Rhone,” Madeline said, failing to stifle a little laugh at how motherly Mary was.
She made Madeline think of her own mother back in Louisiana. The twinge of pain that shot through her was no laughing matter, but she braved it and followed Mary to the second floor and through a long corridor leading into a kitchen. Mary instructed her to sit down and so she did, though Raze remained firmly on Mary’s hip as the woman flew through the kitchen like a whirlwind.
