“No. No doctor. It’s... I’m pregnant. The hospital labs confirmed it for me after I arrived,” Dani admitted. She picked at the edge of her hospital gown sleeve. “Russ doesn’t know yet. I don’t really know how to tell him.”
The news caught me by surprise and my gut instinct to congratulate her hung on the tip of my tongue. “I’m going to go out on a limb and guess you guys weren’t trying.”
Dani shook her head. “I had an IUD in, but you know how the doctors tell you there’s always a tiny, insignificant chance they can fall out or become ineffective? Mine’s gone. I never even noticed.”
“Are you gonna tell him soon?”
“I think so. I don’t — do you think he’ll be happy?”
“Dani, he’ll be ecstatic. The question is, are you happy? Are we celebrating this baby? Do we get to go hog-wild at the mall buying booties and blankies when you get out of here?”
A fragile smile surfaced on Dani’s face. I relaxed immediately. “I think so. I lost a baby once, you know. When I was married to my ex-husband, the one I killed two years ago. The doctors gave me the whole song and dance about it being a natural occurrence sometimes. Said nothing could have prevented it.” She shook her head. “Michael blamed me for losing his son.”
My belly knotted in worry again. “Is this baby going to be okay?” I gestured to her bandaged shoulder.
“Thanks to you, I didn’t lose as much blood as I could have. He or she seems fine.” She nibbled her lower lip and glanced down at her tummy. “They’re going to send an ultrasound tech in around noon to check. I have until then to tell Russ.”
“He’ll be thrilled, Dani, I just know it.”
Maybe his ears were burning, because Russell chose that moment to push through the door. Two large takeout bags and a cup holder with coffee and orange juice filled his big hands.
“You didn’t answer your phone, and I wasn’t sure what you wanted... so I grabbed two of everything,” he called out, setting the food and drinks on the table. “Oh, hey, Leigh.”
“Morning, Russ. I came to check on Dani and we got to chatting.”
“Sorry I took so long, darlin’. I ran home to feed Trigger and Daisy, too.” He looked like hell with dark circles under his eyes. He fidgeted more than usual.
Dani fetched a hash brown out of the bag. “Go ahead and have some, Leigh. I can’t eat all of this and neither can Russ.”
“Sorry, I wasn’t really thinking when I placed the order.” Russ’ boyish grin wiped the nervousness from his face.
Poor guy. He must be so worried about Dani.
Russ lowered Dani’s hospital rail out of his way and sat beside her on the bed while she dug into her biscuit sandwich. I helped myself to the spare. We all ate together and made idle chat until Russ began talking all in a rush.
“Dani, I love you. I was planning to wait until Christmas to lay this on you, but there’s no time like the present, right?” He rubbed his hand up and down her thigh over the blanket. She gave him an odd look.
“Russ, what are you talking about? No time to do what? To give me breakfast?”
The bearshifter shook his head and fetched a black box from his windbreaker pocket. My eyes — and Dani’s too — darted to his open palm immediately. All of my concentration became devoted to not inhaling a piece of egg.
“You’re more than my mate, darlin’. You’re my soul and the air I breathe. Living with you isn’t enough anymore for me. I want you to be my wife. Marry me.” He opened the box to reveal a sparkling ruby surrounded by diamond-encrusted leaves. The gold setting glimmered in the diffuse hospital room light.
I had been granted the privilege of witnessing a beautiful moment. Tears burned my eyes and I held my breath, knowing Dani’s answer before it came from her lips.
“Russ...” Tears streamed down her face. “Yes! Oh, my god, yes! But there’s something you need to know first.”
“What is it, darlin’? You can tell me anything.”
“Remember how I haven’t been feeling well lately? The ER doctor ordered some tests before you got here last night. I’m pregnant.”
“I’m going to be a father?” The joy on Russ’ face was almost painful to see. Sophia’s father hadn’t looked so happy when I told him I was pregnant.
I dreamed of a day when I could relay the same news to Ian. Sophia was my world, but fantasies raced through my thoughts of giving my husband a child with his shifter heritage — a little sister or brother to grow up alongside Sophia. As Russ doted over his wife-to-be, I eased from my seat and crept to the door. I pulled it shut behind me to grant them privacy.
Once I fished my phone out, I asked Ian via text if it was safe to call. My phone rang less than a minute later when I reached the hospital elevator.
“What’s up, sweetie?” The sound of his tired voice thrilled me.
“I’m so glad you’re okay. You’ve been quiet since you drove off last night, and I worried about you,” I babbled out.
“I’m fine. We’ll be on our way back to Quickdraw soon. How’s Dani?”
“Engaged and pregnant,” I chirped, unable to hold the news to myself.
“Hot damn. Tell ‘em I said congrats.”
“We’ll have to do it later. I snuck on out before Russ had the chance to begin bawling over her.”
Ian’s rich laughter warmed my heart. I leaned against the side of the elevator and closed my eyes. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too, baby. Thomas and Ceres are behaving, right?”
“Thomas didn’t show up this morning, but Ceres and Harrison came in to eat breakfast when I left Betty’s house. She said he found a peculiar smell by the river bottoms and wanted to loop back one more time.”
“Sounds like Thomas. They’re good kids—”
“Ian, they’re older than I am. Stop calling them kids.”
“Habit,” he admitted. His sheepish laugh painted a picture in my mind of his broad smile and glinting eyes.
I stepped out of the elevator to the ground floor and moved for the parking lot. “Tell me the truth, Ian. I know you can’t go into details, but I need to know if you’re going into something dangerous.”
First he was silent, then I heard him inhale a deep breath. “It’ll be dangerous, but I promise, I’ll be home to you.”
“That’s all I need to know. Let me know when it’s over.”
“I will. Do one favor for me. Tell Russ to check his cellphone. I’m calling the squad together.”
~Ian~
“Why the fuck was I excluded?” Russ demanded.
“Because Dani needed you, and we knew you’d fly off the handle,” I said.
Russ appeared less than impressed with my response, but as the squad leader, I called the shots and chose team members.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “I just wish you’d trusted me enough to tell me what was going on.”
“Ian trusts you, Russ. You know that, just as much as we all know how much you love Dani. Our informant would be a smear on the concrete floor if you were there during the interrogation.” Sasha set her hand on Russ’ shoulder. “Be reasonable.”
“I said fine.” The cross expression faded from his face. “I am fine. Sorry. I just get so angry where Dani is concerned. Can’t help it, guys.”
Once his cooler head prevailed, we returned to our debriefing.
“Our informant tells us there are a handful of small-time dealers, but the guys we really want are woven into the Quickdraw PD and our county sheriff’s department. There’s a couple in the higher echelon.” I slid my finger over the touch display and opened an image. “Chief Montgomery ordered the hit. My snooping around in his town and asking questions scared him. They know if I run for sheriff in the next election, they don’t have a chance in hell of bribing me to shut up.”
“Yeah, because you’re already making legitimate money hand over fist,” Juni chirped. “You don’t need their payoffs.”
“Ian’s incorruptible,” Nadir added. “They have good
reason to be scared.”
“Do we have authorization?” Sasha asked. “We need to do this by the book if we’re going to go in.”
“We have everything we need. Unless your hands—” I gave a pause to look at Sasha “—or your paws are forced, we’re not to engage in combat. We don’t want a meth lab of dead junkies with claw marks in them. This isn’t Baghdad and we’re not at war.”
“Look, I can’t be held responsible for that,” Sasha said. “I’m sorry I almost broke cover that day, but I don’t regret killing them all.”
“Nice kitty,” Nadir murmured.
Sasha hissed at him.
“If you’re in a bind, by all means, let your claws out. I want to go in hard, get the evidence we need, and get out. Subdue if possible before taking any lives.”
“If the sheriff is in on all this, who are you planning on handing the evidence over to?” Taylor tucked a knife inside his boot.
“Texas Rangers. I called my friend, Charles, to give us a hand. He’s on his way out from Dallas,” I explained.
Juni’s eyes grew round. “You have friends in the Rangers, too?”
“Ian has friends everywhere. You should know that by now, darlin’.” Russ clapped Juni on the shoulder.
“Officially, it’s their case, but we’re gonna make it all easy for them and have this wrapped up nice and tight by the time they arrive.” I rose from my seat and passed out earpieces. “Juni spent a lot of time making these to fit our unique shapes. They’re for us to use in our animal forms.”
Sasha stared at the circular device I handed her. “Ian, this is a cat collar.”
“It’s extendable, Sasha. It’ll adjust whenever you shift.” Juni opened her laptop and logged into her tracking program. “With this, I’ll be able to follow all of you. We tagged the wolves and their ravens already. If you swap to your human form to communicate, I’ll be here at Ian’s place to direct you.”
“Sounds good,” Russ said. He turned his collar around in his hands a few times then tried to fasten it around his neck.
“That’s for your wrist, Russ,” Juni said.
“Oh.”
“Taylor, since you, Ian, and Russ are the only animals native to this area, I’m counting on you to get as close as you can without provoking them to put a bullet in your ass,” Nadir said. “I’m staying behind with Juni to operate the video systems.”
“Sweet. I can do that. You just want some good surveillance feed as evidence, right?” Taylor asked.
“Right. We need clear visuals on faces and activities,” Juni replied.
Once preparations were made, our team split. Juni and Nadir remained behind at my place to run the control center, but I had the most difficult job of them all: I refused to allow anyone to confront Montgomery before me.
***
“About time you got here,” Kevin complained. His voice crackled through the wire we’d taped to his chest. I listened from my hiding spot outside of a leaning shack in the woods.
Confronting Sheriff Montgomery wasn’t enough. We needed him to freely confess what he’d done. My contacts with the Texas Rangers had approved the ruse, lending legitimacy to evidence I planned on collecting.
“Where the hell have you been, Kevin?”
“Taking care of my damn hand, man. You didn’t say MacArthur had fuckin’ attack dogs. You gave us bad info, Sheriff.”
“You assured me you and your boys could handle MacArthur,” Sheriff Montgomery spat. “If you can kill him, you could have shot a couple mutts.”
“Well, he wasn't there. Just pay up and I’ll go.”
“I’m not paying you for an unfinished job. You were sent to kill MacArthur and his junkie slut. That’s what I hired you for. Last I checked they were alive and your boys were arrested. Such a shame they tried to escape and were shot.”
“We told you we weren’t gonna kill Leigh! You promised she wouldn’t be there. I only went because you swore he’d be alone. I can’t go back there again! He’ll be expecting it. I can’t even hold a gun right now. Look at my hand.”
I smirked. Ceres didn’t play around when it came to taking someone down. He was lucky to have escaped with his throat intact. Hell, he’d be lucky to make any sort of deal at all to keep from going away to prison for life.
“Then I guess you’re no use to me anymore, Kev.”
“Hey, man... what the fuck? Put the gun down!”
As much as Kevin deserved to get shot, this wasn’t the way to do things. I needed him on a witness stand. Abandoning my post outside, I circled round to the front and kicked the door in.
I had a split second to make my decision. The gun swung around toward me, but my sharp reflexes gave me ample time to twist out of the bullet’s path. It struck the wall behind me instead, shattering the glass in a picture frame. I usually saved the inhuman reflexes for the battlefield when there weren’t any witnesses left to tell tales. For Montgomery, I made an exception. I was on him in a second, smashing my knuckles into his chin. He stumbled back and lost control of his gun when I twisted his arm and dislocated his shoulder to disarm him. Kevin, the junkie we’d used as our bait, high-tailed it out the door without a backward glance.
Unwilling to go without a fight, the sheriff swung his heavy fist around and clipped me in the temple. I blocked another punch and flipped him to the floor. The chunky, out of shape police chief didn’t have a chance against me, but I lacked mercy.
“You sent men to kill my wife.” My fist pounded into his face, cracking cartilage in his nose. My eagle craved vengeance and his blood, demanding his death for daring to put my mate in danger.
“Ian,” Juni spoke up through the communication channel.
Montgomery groaned, his attempt to speak coming out as a hoarse croak.
“You’re going to pay for what you’ve done here, Montgomery. All this time, you knew about the bullshit happening here.” I punched him again, bruising my knuckles. He grunted and spit blood to the side.
“Ian, stop!” Juni cried. “You’ll kill him if you keep up like this.”
“Maybe I want to kill him,” I growled out.
“You don’t,” she disagreed, adopting the placid tone reserved for our detainees.
“She’s right, Ian,” Nadir said. “Listen to us. You do not want this man’s blood on your hands. You’re better than that.”
Montgomery’s head lolled back. Blood trickled from his nose and split lip, and all I wanted was to finish what I began.
“Fine,” I hissed between my teeth. I waited for the anger to recede, breathing in deep and measured breaths. Even my eagle had been ready to surrender to our shared anger, enraged by the man’s decision to place Leigh and Sophia in danger. “Get to talking, Montgomery. Tell me everything.”
“Ian. Ian, you don’t understand. There are things going on in this town that you can’t comprehend. Things you won’t want to be involved in. You’ll wish he killed you and Leigh both if you go through with this.”
“Right now, my squad is leading a raid against three different meth labs and crack houses set up in the boonies. We’re taking your supply line down.”
“You’ll never find the supply line. Those are only decoys. They don’t mean anything.”
“Then tell me where to find the real source. Tell me now and it’ll look good on you later when the DA presses charges against you. Maybe they’ll cut you a deal.”
Montgomery’s bitter chuckle unnerved me and shattered my righteous indignation. “You can’t stop what’s happening here. No one can.”
“You won’t be able to get any information from him, Ian. That guy’s out of it. Give it up,” Nadir said.
“Yeah, you’re right,” I replied. I stood and left Montgomery on the floor to look out the window. There wasn’t any sign of Kevin. “Our witness is gone.”
“I saw it,” Juni reassured me. “Thomas has him cornered outside.” The wolf growled low to confirm. “Your help is on the way, Ian, not that you need them.”
&
nbsp; “Sit your ass on the floor until the Rangers get in here to arrest you,” I barked at him.
I patted Montgomery down and found a second firearm concealed in his boot. About five minutes later, tires screeched on the blacktop to herald my backup’s timely arrival. Somehow, I hadn’t given in to my bestial nature. Death was more than he deserved for everything he’d done.
Montgomery’s wet cough held too much amusement for my taste. Crossing to the window, I glanced outside at the two trucks with their flashing lights. Once I verified my friend was one of the responding officers, I pulled open the door and stepped outside.
Shamed and stripped of his authority, Montgomery surrendered to his own cowardice in the early hours of the morning a week later. Officers found him hanging by a bed sheet in a cell. He’d taken his secrets with him.
Chapter Thirteen
Four Months Later
~Ian~
“Leigh? Baby? I’m back.”
Three weeks away from my wife and daughter felt like a lifetime. I loved my job and hiring out my services to the government, but for the first time in my entire career, I couldn’t wait to be home.
Following the dramatic end of Chief Montgomery’s reign over Quickdraw, the drug trade calmed down and the remaining police officers quietly resumed cleaning up my hometown. Everyone knew about my upcoming campaign for County Sheriff, and thanks to the part I played in bringing the crooked chief to justice, my election was guaranteed.
Shortly after Leigh, Sophia, and I spent our first Christmas together, I resumed taking government contracts. Russ and I planned to build a comfortable savings account to allow us to remain home for the unforeseeable future. He wanted to spend the next year with Dani and their child. I wanted to be there for Leigh to provide the support she needed.
This is it. The last job until Leigh’s out of school. Nothing to stand between her and me now. And even then maybe I am done for good. Maybe it’s time to retire and pass the torch to Nadir. Maybe it’s time to become a real family man and run things from behind the scenes.
It was time to end my career. For Leigh and Sophia, I’d give up anything.
I stepped through the door, eager to pull my two favorite girls into my arms. Once I found them. Leigh’s scent led me to the backyard and I leaned against the door, watching. She had a large blanket spread out over the grass and Sophia playing beside her. Petunia napped in the sun nearby along with the single puppy we’d kept. Wedding magazines piled up within her reach, another sight that brought a smile to my face. Russ and I had been in full agreement with the girls’ plan for a double wedding.
Let Us Prey: BBW Military Paranormal Romance (Wild Operatives, #2) Page 13
