True North

by Beth D. Carter

“You talked to her?”

  “Yeah. Her name is Allison, goes by Allis. Says she was working in a bar in Durango and some crazy patron abducted her. She escaped and ran, then he shot her.”

  North nodded. “All right. We need to find this sick bastard.”

  “She gave me a false last name,” Givon said, causing North to frown. “Said it was Smith.”

  “How do you know that’s false? Lots of people are named Smith.”

  “She hesitated. And my gut tells me she’s lying.”

  “There are a lot of reasons to give a false last name,” North reasoned. “Number one being she’s probably scared as fuck. After all, she was shot in the back and was going to be buried alive.”

  “I know.” Givon groaned and ran a hand over his face. “Shit.”

  North had known Givon a long time, but he didn’t recognize the agitation on his friend’s face. “What’s wrong with you? You’re normally the level-headed one out of us.”

  “I…ah…just had this draw to her,” Givon stated, although he looked ashamed for spilling his guts.

  Now he was confused. “Draw?”

  Givon gave a shake of his head. “Forget it. I’m just tired. Listen, I’m going back to the site. I sent Charlie there to set up crime scene tape and start collecting evidence but I want to have a look around as well.”

  North was acutely aware of the broken necklace in his pocket but he didn’t say a word about it. There wasn’t anything going to come from a little charm and besides, he wanted to get it fixed and give it back to the girl—to Allis.

  “Who’s guarding her?” he asked.

  “I have only Jack,” Givon replied. “Can you go check on her later? I should be back in a few hours. I also have to run this bullet to Riverton for analysis. I don’t want her to feel abandoned.”

  “Sure.”

  Givon hesitated and nodded toward the ER. “You need me for anything, you let me know. Okay?”

  “Thanks, Giv,” North murmured.

  He watched his friend leave, wondering what he meant by feeling a draw toward the girl. Were his protective feelings coming out for her too? When he heard his name being called, he shook off his musings and hurried back to his club.

  Chapter Four

  Playing the waiting game sucked, especially when he watched various members of the club head outside for a smoke. Envy hit him hard. He was jonesing bad for a cigarette. North was more than convinced that Givon’s prediction was going to come true, because in about two seconds flat, he would be stomping outside to bum one off his MC brother.

  If it wasn’t for the fact that Givon always knew when he was lying, he’d flat out fib. But the thought of seeing the smug look on Givon’s face prevented him from begging, so to distract himself, he decided to go check on the girl. He headed over to the elevators and managed to catch the lingering smoke stink on Draven’s clothes as he passed by, which caused his salivary glands to secrete with need. Good God, he hadn’t realized the craving would be so painful.

  His boots made heavy, dull echoes through the darkened hospital hallway as he strode so he tried to lighten his steps, which proved impossible. He was a big, muscular guy and dainty walking just wasn’t in his nature. As he approached, the first thing he noticed about room three-eleven was that Jack wasn’t at his post. Alarm bells rang through his head and he hurried, rushing into the room to see Allis flailing her arms while a man held a pillow over her face.

  “What the fuck!” he yelled and charged forward.

  The man looked up in surprise. North had a moment to realize the man wore a white coat and a surgical mask before the assailant pushed the C-arm table his way. The heavy table caught him off guard and banged into his shin, causing him to stumble. Gravity did the rest as he fell on his ass. The fucker rushed past him and out of the room.

  Cursing, North pushed the table away, surged to his feet and ran after him. By the look of the illuminated buttons over the doors, the elevator was still descending, but North saw the stairway door closing so he burst through it and began to run down the stairs, jumping over the railing on the second floor to land in front of the first floor door. He yanked it open and rushed back into the front entrance of the hospital, his gaze bouncing over everyone to find the man.

  “What’s wrong?” Draven called out to him.

  North ignored him as the sound of squealing tires reached them from the parking lot.

  He ran out of the door and saw a pick-up truck with a bed cover racing away. It was too dark to read the license plate. Red-hot anger poured through him and all he wanted to do was kick something or punch someone—or do both. Instead, he reined it back in and stomped back into the hospital to the elevators, ignoring the concerned faces of his club members and the frightened whispers of the staff. He whipped out his cell phone and hit Givon’s speed dial number.

  “Is everything all right?” Givon immediately asked.

  “No! I caught a guy trying to smother Allis,” North barked.

  “What? Where was Jack?”

  North stomped back to the elevators and pushed the Up button over and over until the door opened. He stepped angrily into the car and before it closed in his face, yelled, “I don’t know where the fucker was, but at least he won’t have to take an ambulance to the fucking hospital! I’ll just throw his ass down the stairs!”

  The ride took only a moment and when the door slid open, he noticed Jack back at his post. He hung up and slipped the phone into his pocket as he strode angrily to the deputy.

  “Hey, North, how are—?”

  North grabbed Jack’s shirt, cutting off the greeting as he pushed him against the wall and stuffed his arm under the smaller man’s chin. Jack’s eyes widened in fear and a sliver of satisfaction coursed through North. Somewhere, far off, he heard a nurse yelling but he didn’t give a flying fuck what she was saying.

  “You couldn’t finish Merrie Walden off so you decide to regain favor by letting that sick fuck get a second chance?”

  “W-what’re you talking about?” Jack wheezed.

  “Why’d you leave your post?”

  “B-because I had to p-piss,” Jack managed to get out in a choked whisper.

  “I came here and a man was trying to smother her with a pillow.”

  “It was a d-doctor,” Jack said. “He said he’d watch her while I went to the bathroom. P-please. C-can’t b-breathe.”

  North snarled at him then abruptly let him go. Jack slid to the floor, his face a nasty shade of purple as he gasped and coughed. A nurse bent down to help Jack but North ignored them both and walked into the room. Allis’s terrified gaze met his.

  “Are you all right?” he demanded, still hyped up on the adrenaline of the chase and his anger at Jack.

  Allis nodded. She clutched the pillow that the man had been holding over her face. Again, he had that feeling to smash something. Instead, he took a deep breath, mentally forcing himself to calm the fuck down, as he looked Allis over, making sure she really was okay.

  Someone, probably a nurse, had cleaned her up. Her long, stick-straight hair shone almost blue in the overhead light. It created a dark curtain of silk around her heart-shaped face. Her wide-eyed look never left him and it kicked him in his gut to see fear in their deep chocolate depths. She was scared of him.

  “My name is North Tabion.”

  “The sheriff’s North?” she asked, her voice low and husky with trepidation.

  He nodded. “We found you out there in the woods.”

  The death grip she had on the pillow relaxed and that helped North calm the savage beast raging inside him.

  “Sheriff Halloran told me,” she said. “You brought me to the hospital. You…saved me from that man again.”

  “It was the same man who shot you?” North asked, frowning.

  “I think so,” she said. “Same eyes.”

  “Goddamn it,” he swore quietly, just as the nurse rushed into the room.

  “Sir! Visiting hours are over,” she stated in a
cold voice.

  “I’m not a visitor,” he told her. “I’m her fucking savior. Did you know a man was in here holding a goddamn pillow over her face? Where were you, lady, while he almost smothered her to death?”

  The nurse’s mouth fell open and she glanced at Allis, as if trying to confirm what he said. Obviously, the terrified look still haunting Allis’s face was all the nurse needed.

  “I…I was doing my rounds,” she stammered. “I didn’t know!”

  “I’ll be sitting here through the night,” he informed her in a cold voice. “Protecting her since you and Mr. Bungles over there can’t seem to identify a killer from a doctor.”

  He shooed her out and closed the door in her and Deputy Jack’s faces. He grabbed the chair against the wall and brought it closer to the bed then sat, propping one booted foot against the metal bed frame as he and Allis stared at each other in the dim light.

  “Are you sure you should be on your back?” he asked.

  “Probably not,” she murmured. “But the morphine helps a lot.”

  He gave her a ghost of a smile.

  “You’re very brave,” he finally said. “Giv told me what you’ve been through. Escaping through the forest, not knowing where you were.”

  “Well…there wasn’t anyone who was going to save me, so I had to save myself.”

  “You remind me of another woman. A man abducted her and she jumped out of a speeding car.”

  Allis gasped. “Is she all right?”

  “Yeah,” he replied. “She broke her wrist but she’s safe now, just like you’re going to be safe from now on. I won’t let that fucker hurt you.”

  Disbelief filled her eyes. “That’s what the sheriff said.”

  “Givon is a good guy,” North told her. “Just a little too trusting.”

  “And you’re not trusting?”

  “No.”

  “Why?”

  He hesitated. His trust issues ran deep. There was only one person he truly, deeply believed in and that was Givon. He even kept his pack brothers at an emotional distance since Old Patch had died.

  “I can’t trust people to do the right thing,” he finally explained.

  “Can’t or won’t?”

  He gave her a grim smile. “Most of the time, people stand around and do nothing. Or look the other way. It pisses me off. I’ve learned it’s best to just be cynical of everyone so…I can’t and I won’t.”

  “That seems lonely.”

  He shrugged. “I’ve got my club and I’ve got Givon.”

  She cocked her head. “Club?”

  “I’m president of the Red Wolves Motorcycle Club,” he told her.

  Her eyes widened so he knew she’d heard of them.

  “And you’re friends with a cop?”

  He shrugged. “We grew up together. Learned to hide together from our asshole fathers. He’s a good man.”

  She lowered her gaze. “I’ve not known too many good men,” she admitted softly.

  “Is that why you gave Givon a wrong last name?”

  That got her attention. She jerked her gaze back to his face and fear suddenly dominated every line as she shook her head. “Don’t,” she whispered frantically.

  “Don’t what, Allis?”

  “Don’t try to search out who I am,” she pleaded.

  He studied her, trying to beat down his body’s knee-jerk response to her. It wasn’t just that she was lovely, although breathtaking would be a more accurate description of her beauty. It was more of a primal response. Pheromones, maybe, or perhaps seeing how fragile she looked right now having almost been killed, twice. The first time his protective instincts had come out but this time, he wanted to wrap his arms around her. Kiss her. Soothe her. Promise her the moon and the stars. For an unromantic man, he was thinking some pretty clichéd flights of fancy shit.

  “Are you in trouble?” he asked.

  She didn’t answer, but he could read the answer on her face—could smell it. Her fear was alive and tangible.

  “I can take you away from here,” he told her quietly. “Hide you. The law would never be able to find you.”

  “I thought Givon was your friend?”

  North pushed down the guilt that washed through him. “I’d protect you, Allis. The club has friends throughout the northwest. I can send you to a different club.”

  She drew a deep breath and it was clear that she was thinking about it. Thinking hard. For a minute, he thought she was going to agree, then finally, she shook her head.

  “No,” she said. “I can’t let you do that. I’m not in trouble, per se, just…only with one law man.”

  It took him a moment to realize what she meant. Anger coursed through him. “You mean someone’s been harassing you? Someone with a badge?”

  She nodded. “I don’t want him to find me. If my real name gets into the system as a shooting victim, he’ll find me.”

  “Would you be comfortable telling me his name?”

  Her lips thinned out and she winced as she shifted. “I just… I need time.”

  “Okay,” he said. “I get it. You can have all the time you need. Why don’t you hit that morphine pump and get some sleep?”

  She shook her head. “No. I slept last time and woke up with a pillow on my face.”

  He shifted forward and took one of her hands in his. “The Wolves are going to watch over you now. I’m going to stay next to you all night. I’ll even have one of our prospects stay outside your door.”

  She stared at him, her brow creasing as she searched his face, so he kept his expression open and as honest as possible. He wanted her to feel like he was playing straight because as far as she was concerned, she’d already been betrayed once by those professing to protect her.

  Finally, she nodded. “Okay,” she said, accepting his word.

  Her trust in him brought a flush of warmth over his skin as he watched her hit the morphine drip. She gripped his hand tightly, as if she was afraid to let him go. Little by little, her eyes lowered and slowly, slowly, closed. A moment later, her breathing became deep and even as she slept.

  He studied her face, tracing every curve and feature, admiring the cohesion of strength and beauty. She looked to be in her early twenties, a girl way too young to be scared and running for her life, and again, it brought out all his protective tendencies. He rubbed the tender skin of her hand and shivered a little at the sparks that shot up his arm. It was a troubling sensation because he was almost forty years old. Too old to be lusting like a green schoolboy after a girl almost half his age.

  He wasn’t sure how long he sat there like that, holding her hand and watching her sleep, but a commotion outside the door drew his attention so he gently laid her hand down and he rose.

  Givon had arrived and was snarling at Jack. North closed the door behind him and crossed his arms.

  “What the fuck happened?” Givon demanded.

  “Your deputy abandoned his post and I found our trigger-happy assassin trying to smother our girl,” North stated.

  Givon rounded on his deputy. “I told you, Jack—”

  “A doctor came,” Jack argued. “He wore a white coat and had a mask on his face, one of those that they wear during an operation, and he was holding a clipboard. Told me to take a break while he checked on her.”

  “Goddamn it,” Givon swore. “This is the last straw, Jack. Between your spying and now this, I’ve had it.”

  “Wait. What? What do you mean spying?”

  “Cut it out. I know you’re working with Gray Dog somehow.”

  “You think I’m a goddamn plant?”

  “Someone riffled through my desk, stole information—”

  “Not me!” Jack cried. “Is that why you’ve been giving me all the shit jobs?”

  Givon sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “It was either you or Sandra and you had the lame chicken story—”

  “It was the truth,” Jack spat. “And as soon as I find that fucker, I’ll prove it to you.”
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  Looking at the deputy’s indignation, North had a twinge of doubt. He glanced at Givon and saw the same level of hesitation. But if Jack hadn’t betrayed the sheriff’s office, that only left Givon’s receptionist Sandra, who’d been working for the sheriff’s department for forty years, or the chicken man’s excuse.

  But that wasn’t his business or his problem.

  “You know what?” North stated, pulling out his phone and placing a call. “Fuck both of you. Hey…send the prospect to room three-eleven on the third floor. And text me updates about Nick. Yeah, I’ll be up here too.”

  He hung up and shot Givon an I-dare-you glare.

  “What’re you doing?” Givon demanded.

  “I’m putting my own security detail on her as well, because if the two nimrods have to take a potty break, they can alternate.”

  “That’s… Well, that’s actually a good idea,” he said grudgingly. “But I’m going to be staying with her tonight.”

  “No, I’m going to stay,” North argued.

  Givon folded his arms just at the same moment the nurse scurried up to them, her hands on her hips as she glared at them.

  “All of you can stay with her in the room if you just shut up,” she whispered angrily. “Patients are trying to sleep.”

  “Fine,” Givon growled. He turned and walked into the room without a backward glance. The elevator dinged and the doors opened, revealing Nimrod. As the prospect walked closer, North pointed at Jack.

  “This is your partner tonight,” North stated. “If you guys need a break, then alternate. No one—and I mean no one—gets through until you talk to me or the sheriff. Understand?”

  Nimrod nodded. He might not be too bright on the mechanical side of things but so far, he was proving loyal. North walked back into Allis’ room and saw that Givon had claimed the chair by the bed, his gaze focused on the unconscious woman.

  North stuck his head out and asked the prospect for a chair from the waiting room. Moments later, Nimrod set another chair on the other side of the bed. Now both men watched over her, protecting her, and for some odd reason, it felt right.

  “She’s hiding from a stalker,” he told Givon in a low tone. “A cop stalker. She gave you a fake name because if you put her in the system, he could flag her and come after her.”