by Paige Tyler
Khaki had only been half listening, more focused on her wounds. But that got her attention.
“All the people who claimed to be my friends turned on me!” Jeremy shouted. “They told internal affairs I almost got you killed, that I assaulted you, and that you left to get away from me. They didn’t want to listen to a damn thing I said. They fucking suspended me, pending some bullshit ethics review. The union rep is telling me I’m never going to work in law enforcement again. Did you hear that, you bitch? You cost me my job. My reputation. My life!”
Khaki would have laughed if her leg hadn’t hurt so much. She had no idea what kind of mental game of Twister Jeremy was playing that allowed him to blame his suspension and possible unemployment on her, but he was.
He was moving around the area in a circular search pattern now. Sooner or later he was going to stumble over a blood trail or a footprint, something that would lead him to her hiding place.
She closed her eyes and tried doing the mental exercises Xander had taught her so she could get her claws and fangs to come out, but it didn’t work nearly as well as Xander’s voice. After a few minutes, she was forced to give up again. The pain she was trying to find relief from was also preventing her from calming down enough to bring on a shift. It didn’t help that she was worried about Jeremy finding her.
She slowly rolled out from under the car and crawled to her feet as quietly as she could, quickly looked for Jeremy, and then slowly limped in the opposite direction, toward the big building in the center of the junkyard. Her best bet now was to get inside and find a phone so she could call for help. She hated the idea of admitting to Dixon and the rest of the guys what she’d been planning to do to Jeremy, but she didn’t have a choice now.
“Funny how things work out,” Jeremy said from somewhere off to her left.
She immediately veered to the right. She was still heading for the building, but was willing to take a longer path to get there to avoid Jeremy.
“My original plan was to show up at your apartment and woo you into coming back to Lakefront with me. I figured if I could come back with you at my side all my problems would go away.”
Jeremy suddenly started moving in her direction. Had he heard her? That wasn’t possible. She moved a little more to the right and kept going, making sure to keep close to a car or some other piece of heavy metal—anything that would stop a bullet if she had to jump behind it.
“How the hell was I to know you’d go and sleep with the first Neanderthal who’d pull your panties down? You never were too bright. But then I saw in the news how you saved those snot-nosed kids from the bank robbers. I even saw the video clip. It pissed me off pretty good. No way in hell were you going to have a dream job here in Dallas while I filed for unemployment. That’s when I decided to kill you and your SWAT boyfriend.”
Khaki walked backward as she listened to Jeremy, hoping to keep a lock on exactly where he was. How could he casually talk about killing two fellow cops like that?
“But then your Corporal Riggs went and lived. Still not sure how the hell that’s even possible when I put three armor-piercing bullets through the center of his chest. I guess the Dallas PD can afford better Kevlar vests than Lakefront.”
She was still backing toward the main building when the overwhelming scent of blood reached up and grabbed her attention from behind. But it was too late. She stumbled over something, jarring her leg so hard when she hit the ground she almost cried out.
She looked down and saw that she’d tripped over a man…and a dog. The man’s arms were wrapped around the dog, and there were three bullet holes in the center of his back. As if he’d been trying to protect his dog from Jeremy. Based on the animal’s still body and the amount of blood all over both of them, the man’s efforts had been in vain. Rage surged through her. Damn him to hell. It was stupid to even think it, but why’d he have to shoot the dog?
Her jaws and fingers ached with the urge to rip Jeremy to shreds. But no matter how much she strained to get her fangs and claws to come out, they stubbornly stayed where they were. She was so focused on trying to shift she didn’t realize Jeremy had worked his way closer until she heard him walking just on the other side of a row of minivans to her right. If she hadn’t tripped over the man and his dog, Jeremy would have seen and killed her already.
Considering the fact that he was just about at the end of the row of soccer mom wagons, she guessed Jeremy was about to see—and kill—her soon.
* * *
It took Becker a while to call in with Khaki’s location, and by the time he got to them, they’d gone nearly twenty miles too far to the east on U.S. Route 80. Swearing, Hale jerked his FJ Cruiser into the grassy median and did a U-turn, getting them heading back to I-635.
“Her cell phone is stationary about a half mile from a junkyard called Eastside Chop and Shop,” Becker said over Alex’s phone. “The area around there is mostly residential subdivisions, so the junkyard is probably where she’s heading. And, Xander, her car hasn’t moved for almost fifteen minutes.”
Hale floored it without Xander having to ask.
Xander tried his best not to count the mile markers they zipped past. Even as fast as Hale drove, the poles still weren’t going by fast enough.
“Khaki’s going to be okay,” Cooper said into the silence filling the vehicle. “She’s tough and smart. She won’t let Jeremy get the drop on her.”
Xander wasn’t so sure about that. Although Khaki was more than capable of taking care of herself, Jeremy was clearly a good shot with a sniper rifle. All it would take was one perfectly aimed shot and Khaki would find herself in serious trouble. And considering that Jeremy had lured her to that junkyard, an ambush wasn’t out of the question.
But he was worried about more than just the possibility of Jeremy shooting her. What if Mac was right and Khaki had headed after her ex with the intention of killing him? Xander didn’t want to think about Khaki doing something like that, but he knew how much she hated Jeremy. He’d made her life a living hell out in Washington. So bad that a fighter like her had left the state. The fact that Jeremy had come here to Dallas, where she was trying to create a new life for herself, and shot him in cold blood might be more than enough to push her over the edge and make her do something she’d regret for the rest of her life. She could even end up going to prison.
Xander refused to let his mind go down that path. Instead, he focused on all the things he hadn’t had a chance to say to Khaki yet. She knew that she was The One for him, and he’d told her that he loved her, but that didn’t seem like it was enough. He promised himself that he was going to spend two straight days telling Khaki how much he loved and needed her. Hell, if he had to, he’d use Google Translate to come up with twenty different ways to say it.
Alex’s phone rang, echoing in the silence.
“Guys,” Becker said when Alex put him on speaker. “You need to get to that junkyard now. We have multiple reports of shots being fired. Gage has gotten Deputy Chief Mason involved and they’re calling for a perimeter to be established outside the area, but you need to hurry.”
“We’ll be there in two minutes,” Hale said as he weaved in and out of traffic.
In the backseat, Alex pulled out his backup piece and checked the magazine. He and Hale were the only ones packing. Cooper’s off-duty sidearm was sitting in a safe at the compound. That meant two 9 mms going up against a renegade cop who was carrying who knew how many weapons.
Alex offered Xander the 9 mm, but Xander shook his head. A handgun wasn’t going to make a difference in this situation. He needed to find Khaki and get her away from Jeremy. That was his only goal at the moment.
Hale slid the SUV to a stop outside the junkyard’s entrance. Xander would have preferred to keep going, but the gate was closed and it looked substantial enough to stop their vehicle cold if they tried to ram it.
Xander was out and testing the air for Khaki’s scent before the Toyota stopped rocking back and forth. The wind direc
tion wasn’t helping, and even worse, the whole place reeked of gasoline and motor oil. He could pick up Khaki’s scent on the air, but he couldn’t pinpoint where she was in the large junkyard, or even a general direction.
“Spread out and find Khaki,” Xander ordered. “Mike will be here in a few minutes with his fully equipped squad. We’ll let him worry about taking care of Jeremy.”
They nodded, scrambling over the ten-foot-high fence, then spreading out once inside. Out of the corner of his eye, Xander saw Cooper start to strip off his clothes and casually drop them to the ground. Cooper had obviously decided that searching the junkyard in his full wolf form was faster than doing it on two feet. Xander couldn’t disagree. He’d love to change into a wolf right now, both because it would improve his senses and because he’d like nothing better than to kick Jeremy’s ass in that form. But it wasn’t practical at the moment. In his weakened state, it would take too long to accomplish a full shift and unfortunately, it would leave him without the ability to use his hands. He had no idea where Khaki might be. Being able to open a door might make the difference between her living and dying.
But just because he wasn’t able to shift into wolf form or carry a weapon, that didn’t mean he was defenseless. He let his body go into a partial shift, extending his claws and fangs as far as they would go, feeling the muscles of his arms, shoulders, and back ripple and twist as they bulked up. He wasn’t looking for Jeremy, but if he ran across him, the asshole would find Xander more than a handful to deal with.
He moved quickly across the middle of the junkyard, straining both his nose and ears to get a bead on Khaki. He caught an occasional whiff of her scent, but it was fleeting and inconclusive. He wished he had Khaki’s ability to separate out different scents. Then he’d be able to ignore all the harsh petroleum odors and focus on the one smell he cared about.
He was just passing an old, rusty drum of oil when he smelled a familiar scent. Even more than any other smell in the place, there was no missing the scent of Khaki’s blood. He turned and ran in the direction it was coming from.
He found a splatter of blood on the ground, then more leading under the remains of an old car. He didn’t have to stop and see if she was still there. She wasn’t. He would have heard her heart beating if she was.
The trail of blood led him to a row of partially disassembled minivans, and he almost stumbled as he saw a dark shape on the ground ahead of him. Oh God, no. But the overwhelming scent of blood coming from the bodies didn’t match Khaki’s. She’d definitely been here, though. He could smell her.
“Xander!”
His heart thudded at the sound of Khaki’s voice, and he spun around just in time to see Jeremy standing fifty feet away aiming a rifle at him. Xander threw himself to the side, but it was too late. Jeremy fired, and Xander cartwheeled through the air.
Xander hit the ground hard, the air whooshing out of his lungs, and his chest throbbing like an elephant was stomping on it. He’d known his previous injuries were still healing and sapping a lot of his strength, but he didn’t realize exactly what that meant until he tried to get to his feet and found his legs refusing to cooperate.
To his right, footsteps rapidly approached. For a moment, Xander thought it was Hale or Alex, but then he saw Jeremy come around the side of one of the minivans.
“What kind of fucking monster are you?” Jeremy eyed Xander like he’d stepped out of a horror movie, revulsion on his face. Then he lifted his rifle and pointed it at his head. “Whatever you are, I’m going to put you out of your misery for good this time.”
Chapter 15
Khaki had found a hiding place inside one of the minivans moments before Jeremy came around the corner. She held her breath as he walked past her, only a few feet between them. If he’d turned and looked her way, he would have seen her. But he didn’t, and as he slowly moved past her, she finally let herself breathe again. She didn’t move, not even after he was out of sight. Instead, she stayed where she was and tried to push the sharp pain in her leg and the dull throb in her stomach to the edges of her perception.
But no matter how hard she focused, the calmness she needed to shift wouldn’t come. It wasn’t surprising, considering she had to keep half her attention on Jeremy. She was so wrapped up in trying to put herself in the forest scene Xander always used with her that she didn’t realize Xander was actually there in the junkyard with her until his scent brought her back to reality.
She had no idea how Xander had gotten here, and she didn’t care. All that mattered was that he was, and that she had to warn him about Jeremy.
As slowly and quietly as she could, she crawled out of her hiding place. The pain shooting through her leg made it hard to move quickly, but she managed to get to the open door of the minivan without sounding like a herd of escaped monkeys.
Khaki was about to congratulate herself when she saw Jeremy standing on the far side of the row, staring at Xander like he’d seen a ghost. Although he was shocked to see Xander in the middle of the deserted junkyard, it didn’t stop him from reacting with his perfect killer instincts.
Khaki was shouting Xander’s name even as Jeremy raised his weapon. But it was too late.
She screamed as Xander jumped aside to avoid the shot, only to be smashed violently to the ground, where he lay motionless as Jeremy raced toward him.
She leaped out of the minivan but stumbled to her knees. Her leg had practically gone numb while hiding in the van and now it didn’t want to move as fast as she needed it to. She lifted her head and saw Jeremy come to a stop in front of Xander and raise his rifle for a head shot. No matter how much damage Xander had survived before, she knew he would never survive that.
There were twenty long yards between her and Xander, and she’d never get there in time with her wounded leg not cooperating. She needed to shift now.
Khaki closed her eyes and tried to remember what Xander had taught her. Step one, stay calm and breathe. Which was nearly impossible knowing Jeremy was only a few seconds from shooting the man she loved.
She shoved that thought away and focused on the memory of Xander’s soft, sexy voice as he talked her through that first werewolf lesson in his apartment. She remembered how calm he’d made her feel, how easily she’d shifted her eyes that night.
“Think of a wolf running through the forest, jumping over dead trees, leaping across a stream. Think about the sun going down, your eyes widening to take in the dim light as your claws dig into the loose soil.”
She blocked out everything else, thinking only of Xander’s voice and how much she loved him.
Her heart slowed and she smiled as she remembered how it had felt when her claws had come out that night. She hadn’t even been thinking about it when it happened. Because she’d been thinking about Xander.
When she thought about Xander now, everything finally clicked. She heard his smooth, confident voice telling her that she was the most beautiful woman—the most beautiful werewolf—in the world. That she didn’t have to force herself to shift, but instead had to let herself do it. That she had to simply allow herself to be what she was supposed to be.
She heard Jeremy say he was going to put Xander out of his misery. But more than the words, she heard the gloating tone, knowing that the monster Jeremy had become reveled in killing Xander because he was important to her.
As if on command, she felt her claws slide out. With them came an overwhelming wave of confidence. She could do this; she knew it.
The change kept going and she felt her jaw flex as her fangs pushed their way out. The muscles of her arms, shoulders, neck, and back hummed as strength and power flowed through them. She felt an urge to keep going, to see how far her body would shift, but she didn’t have the time. Xander would die right now if she didn’t act.
She was up and running toward Xander before she even opened her eyes. When she did, everything around her was brighter and more alive, every smell and sound clearer and more defined. Even her emotions felt rawer and m
ore electric.
Jeremy smirked as Xander got to his feet, no doubt letting him do so just for the thrill of putting him down. A fury unlike anything she’d ever felt tore through Khaki. With a growl, she launched herself the last five yards toward Jeremy, flying through the air like the graceful animal inside her.
Jeremy whirled at the sound, his eyes going wide. She hit him hard, the impact sending both of them rolling. Khaki was immediately on her feet, lunging at Jeremy with a savage fury as she ripped the rifle out of his hands and tossed it aside. She advanced on him with a snarl, baring her fangs so he’d know what was coming.
“You’re a fucking freak like him!” he shouted in terror, scrambling away from her on his hands and feet. “I always knew there was something wrong with you.”
Khaki glanced at Xander to see him standing now but heavily favoring one leg. Blood spread from a wound on his hip, staining his jeans.
The rage inside her built up even more. It was bad enough that this bastard had shot her twice, but he’d shot Xander again. Khaki couldn’t let that go.
She turned to Jeremy as he backed up farther and farther. His shoulders thumped into one of the stripped-down minivans, forcing him to stop. He must have seen the rage on her face because he fumbled around in the dirt and weeds and came up with a three-foot-long piece of metal with sharp, twisted brackets mounted to the end.
Faster than she would have given him credit for, Jeremy was up and running at her. Seeing him coming at her with that homemade club set off something primal inside her. He swung at her head with the length of metal, but she caught it easily in her left hand, stopping its trajectory inches before it caved in her skull. At the same time, she brought her right hand up and wrapped her fingers around his throat, shoving him backward like he was nothing. She didn’t stop until she’d slammed him into the minivan, then she ripped the club from his hand at the same time she lifted him off the ground.
