by Claire Adele
“What is this?” she demanded, disgust making her voice shake.
“That’s your instruction book. Take a good look at it. You’ll be expected to do the same things as in those photos. Any questions?”
“I won’t do this. I refuse.”
“I wouldn’t, if I were you. The owners of this business aren’t known for patience. They have rather nasty ways of teaching captives what they want from them.”
At this woman’s warning, anger filled Cynthia. Somehow, she must escape this place, fast.
“Put this on.” The woman held out a small wad of black lingerie fabric she’d taken from the closet near the bureau.
Cynthia didn’t need to unfold the garment to know it was a skimpy bit of clothing with a little lace edging. No way was she wearing that.
The woman’s cell phone rang. “Yeah? I’ll be right there.” Pocketing her cell, she looked at Cynthia. “If you know what’s good for you, put that on.” She turned away and left the room.
The door didn’t close tight. Cynthia moved close to it to listen. Now might be her best chance of escaping.
“Let go of me!” The loud voice of an irate young woman sounded in the hall. The sounds of a scuffle followed. “I told you I wouldn’t come with you. This is kidnapping!”
Cynthia recognized the voice of the young woman from the Rescue Mission who’d been approached by the men in the car the night she’d witnessed the brutal fight in the parking lot. How dare they drag the poor young woman here!! Fury shook Cynthia. She threw the skimpy dress on the floor and opened the door. A Hawk standing outside it turned toward her and shoved her back inside.
Chapter Nine
Juan floored the gas pedal as his car raced up the street, Derek beside him in the passenger seat.
They’d spotted the Hawks abducting a young woman from the Rescue Mission parking area. No way would they get away with this.
Juan had followed them at a careful distance so the Hawks wouldn’t notice. Once they turned off the main street into the neighborhood leading up the hill to their gang headquarters, Juan had lost sight of their car. He had a good idea where they headed and turned onto the street leading into Sierra Del Sol.
The gate to the cul-de-sac was closed when they reached it.
“Let’s hoof it,” Derek said.
Juan parked the car at the side of the road, and they easily vaulted over the gate. Once inside the gated area, they walked uphill on the sidewalk in front of the houses and tried to look inconspicuous. They came to the driveway of the mansion at the top end of the cul-de-sac. A few cars were parked in plain view at the side of the house. One of the cars was the vehicle they’d been following. A second vehicle looked exactly like Cindy’s. It couldn’t be.
“Isn’t that Cindy’s car?” Derek asked.
Fuck. “It sure looks like hers. The windows aren’t darkened like the other cars either. Let’s check it out.”
Keeping to the outside of the parking area, they hid as best they could and looked inside the one resembling Cindy’s. The back seat and luggage area were filled with clothing.
“Dios! This looks like Cindy’s stuff. She has a friend in this cul-de-sac who helps her collect clothing for the mission. The Hawks must have recognized Cindy and forced her to drive up here. I’m going in.”
“Wait,” Derek protested. “We’d better have a plan for getting out of there with Cindy.”
Juan couldn’t fail her. “My plan is to destroy those fucking bastards and take Cindy. Simple,” Juan snarled, with all the menace he felt for the Hawks.
“All right, let’s go. Surprise may be on our side. Shift at the first threat of trouble.”
“Right.” Juan grabbed the doorknob of the side door. “Locked. Break it down.”
They both gave the door a swift hard kick. It opened with a loud bang as the lock broke, slamming the door against the inside wall. They rushed inside the long smoke-filled hall.
One of the Hawks stepped into the hall from a side room. The Hawk grinned and laughed. “We’ve got you boys at last. Hey, guys, they’re here,” he shouted.
Juan poised for battle as more Hawks entered the hall from other rooms down the length of it. Every single one of the fucking bastards grinned with nasty intent. They moved forward slowly, staying a respectful distance behind the older Hawk in front of Juan and Derek.
“So, you’re the so-called leader of this crew,” Juan said.
“I’m the leader now,” the Hawk said. “Have you come back for another taste of our special sex games?”
Bits of memories from being caught and held captive by the Hawks as a teenager flashed in Juan’s mind. He had to ignore those disturbing visions and keep control of this situation if he planned to rescue Cindy.
“We’re here to escort home the two women you’ve kidnapped today,” Juan growled. “If you’re lucky, you’ll still be alive when we leave. If you’re smart, you’ll turn them over to us, and we’ll leave now.”
The leader reached behind his back. The sound of jangling chain links exploded against Juan’s sensitized hearing.
There would be a fight.
“I’ve got your back, bro,” Derek growled softly beside Juan.
All of them stripped and tossed their clothing aside.
As horrifying images of capture by the Hawks tormented Juan, his body began the shift to his werewolf form. Though it took only seconds, pain streaked through his head and limbs as the bones and flesh changed shape and elongated.
Bolts of electric energy raced through Juan. The arcing current swirled around his body, embracing and empowering him with superhuman strength. The blinding streamers of light cracked like deadly whips until his body took on the shape of generations of werewolves before him. The gold wolf pendant and chain his aunt had given him shone with an ethereal brilliance. The topaz eyes glowed bright gold. The chain pulsed with a blinding golden light against Juan’s heart.
Juan’s hands and nails became deadly claws. His teeth lengthened to long, sharp canines. His body formed the lightning-fast giant werewolf form of generations of his family members.
As Derek shifted, his moan changed to a deadly snarl.
Juan waited for the Hawks’ leader to make the first move. This time, they couldn’t attack Juan from behind, with Derek poised at his side in his own lethal wolf form.
“That chain won’t help you this time,” Juan taunted. His change had completed, all his werewolf strength and power primed for battle.
Juan growled a warning as the Hawks finished morphing to their dark werewolf shapes. They remained upright like Juan and Derek. Juan watched the leader as he played with the nasty chain. The criminal was older and more experienced than the others.
Even as Juan swore the goon wouldn’t live long enough to touch him with that chain, visions of Juan’s captivity in the Hawks’ stronghold years ago bombarded him.
The leader grinned, his wolf lips baring his canines. “This should be fun,” he rasped. “It was too easy to take you when you were a teenaged whelp. You were a convenient young wolf for us Hawks to satisfy our sexual appetites. I remember our recently passed leader held you with this chain while we all took a turn enjoying you.”
Juan’s strength weakened at those horrid words. Images of being strangled with the chain came to him clearly. He had no memory of being used by any of the Hawks, but he remembered being unable to shift completely when the chain strangled his more muscular werewolf neck. They’d forced him to remain human and weak. He’d been taken to the leader’s bedroom. They stripped him of his clothing and left him alone with their leader. A vision of his aunt breaking into the bedroom flashed in his mind.
“We gave you a chance to join the Hawks, but you and your family refused the offer,” the new leader said, his voice rasping.
The vision became clear. “I remember you kept a chain around my neck to keep me from shifting while you cowards held me captive,” Juan snarled. “I remember my aunt freed me before any of you Hawks could
get hold of me.” His memory of her falling from their bullets outside the stronghold, and her throat being slashed by a Hawk, filled him with renewed hunger to kill them all. “You all murdered my aunt. I remember promising myself I’d bring every last one of your worthless hides to justice for her death.”
More visions flashed in his mind. After his aunt died, he’d escaped and had made his way home alone, naked, and mourning the loss of his dear aunt. The exact events of that night, before she’d been killed, had disappeared instantly from his memory. Until this very moment, he had feared he’d been abused. The Hawks had taunted him all these years, and he’d believed the scumbags because he hadn’t been able to clearly remember until now what happened after they’d captured him. “I remember that I escaped. You perps never had any of your sick games with me. You never touched me. I outwitted you. You may get a chance to outwit the cops, but only if Derek and I don’t finish you off first.”
Juan’s strength returned stronger than ever. His fears of what had happened while he’d been their prisoner years ago evaporated.
“It was Tito.” The Hawks’ leader swung the chain at Juan’s head. “Tito killed your aunt.”
Juan caught the chain with one clawed hand and wrenched it away. He threw it behind him and deflected a blow from the leader’s claws. Otherworldly strength filled Juan. “Tito’s dead, and you’re going down.”
He kicked the legs out from under the leader, who fell to the floor on his back. The goon yelped in pain as Juan knocked his face to the side. When the leader grabbed at Juan’s clawed hands, Juan slashed with his sharp claws. Howling in pain, the Hawk grabbed at his bleeding arms. Juan’s canines closed on the Hawk’s neck. Collapsing to the floor, the goon was helpless as his strength drained from him.
Pushing up from the unconscious body, Juan launched himself at another Hawk. This one was no match for Juan, and he dispatched him with ease.
Juan glanced to where Derek took down the fourth Hawk. An unconscious werewolf sprawled behind him on the cold tile floor.
There must be other Hawks somewhere. He wasn’t sure how many. More than four Hawks remained in the gang. Juan started down the long hall to search. After taking several strides, he stopped in his tracks.
Cindy stood in the doorway to a room off the hall, a Hawk’s hand around her throat, her eyes huge and round with either fear or shock.
She stared at Juan, a plea for freedom in her expression.
Cynthia remembered a similar fight one night outside the Rescue Mission. And the night in front of her neighbors’ house, when she met Juan, he and the combatants had looked like dogs fighting.
Either she was seeing things, or these evil men had changed to wolf-like monsters. She recognized Juan. He had the same shape, except she knew he wasn’t evil.
The man holding her from behind pushed her into the hallway.
When Juan leaped on the man, Cynthia broke free and ran back inside the room. Afraid to think about Juan fighting in the hall, she grabbed her clothes and hurried to the next room further away. She’d heard the young woman cursing her abductors in that room. Cynthia prayed she was all right.
She turned the doorknob and pushed open the door. The younger woman stood in the furthest corner from the door. A skimpy lace garment lay on the massage table. The young woman still wore her own clothes.
Vicious growls and horrifying moans filled the hall. Cynthia shuddered and motioned to her. “Let’s get out of here.” She held her hand out to the young blonde, who waited less than a second before hurrying to join Cynthia. “Run for the front door. Don’t take time to look back. I’m right behind you. Go!”
The girl rushed through the doorway and down the hall to the front entry.
Juan looked up at Cynthia from where he crouched over the Hawk. His wolf pendant glowed, surrounded by light, the eyes of the wolf golden, the gold chain pulsing as if Juan’s blood rushed through it.
Blood covered the hall floor. Cynthia’s nostrils flared at the metallic odor. She met Juan’s gaze. His eyes held a feral glow. She couldn’t believe what she had just seen.
Cynthia turned away and ran after the young woman, down the hall in the opposite direction from the carnage. She ran faster and caught up to the girl. Cynthia wrenched open the front door and kept going, grabbing her hand as they raced toward the cars.
When she reached her car, she saw the keys in the ignition. Thank God. “Get in. Hurry.”
The young woman ran around the end of the car and hopped in the passenger side.
“I have a good friend right down the street. She’ll take us in. I was just there earlier this afternoon.”
She drove down the street and into the driveway. “She’s a nice lady. You’ll like her. We work together collecting clothing for the Rescue Mission.” Cynthia took the keys out of the ignition, grabbed her clothes, and hurried to the front door of Darlene’s house. The young woman stayed close, thank goodness.
Cynthia rang the doorbell.
Darlene opened the door. “Cynthia! What are you doing? Why are you dressed like that?”
“Can we come in? We need your help.”
“Come in!” Darlene opened the door wide, and Cynthia and the young woman walked inside.
“You won’t believe what happened,” Cynthia said. She could hardly believe it herself. Maybe it was all a hallucination. There could be some chemical in the smoke that filled that horror palace, or in the skimpy lace clothing, that was causing her to hallucinate. Couldn’t there be?
“I’ll tell you everything after I change back into my own clothes.”
“Use my bedroom,” Darlene said.
Cynthia hurried down the hall to change as Darlene introduced herself to the young blonde, who gave her name as Kelly Smith.
* * * *
After calling the police, Juan and Derek hurried to secure all of the Hawks before they regained their strength. Their souls sold to the dark side, without mortal wounds, their netherworld metabolism healed them with inhuman speed. Their blood, spilled in the hall by Juan and Derek, spontaneously ignited and burned, leaving no trace but an acrid smell which was cloaked by cigar smoke. The only thing the Hawks couldn’t do was put on their hastily stripped clothing.
The policemen could deal with that.
Juan tied a knot restraining the final loser just as the police arrived.
Fortunately, the fight had gone in Juan’s favor this time, with Derek’s able support. Impatient to get questions over with, Juan needed to see Cindy.
They told the police they were private eyes and had been investigating the Hawks, who had a new leader since the last run-in with the law, when their previous leader had been shot and killed by a policeman. When asked how they subdued so many at one time, Juan and Derek explained they’d studied under a local expert in self- defense. In their line of work, they had to be able to defend themselves.
Juan needed to get to Cindy. Was she all right? Had they abused her? Had any of the Hawks taken her? Juan didn’t think they had, because he hadn’t seen any abrasions on her face or limbs when that goon brought her into the hall. But Juan had to know for sure that she was all right. She had a friend in this neighborhood. She’d probably gone there.
After the policeman in charge had checked out Juan’s explanation with headquarters, he and Derek were free to leave.
Juan needed to find out if Cindy was all right, and he needed to explain everything to her. Would she want to have anything to do with him after all this? He doubted it, but he had to try. He hated to lose her, wanted her with him always.
“Derek, I have to find Cindy.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Derek said.
They ran down the street. Juan spotted her car in the driveway of a house further down near the entrance to the area.
He tossed his car keys to Derek. “I’ll see if Cindy’s all right.”
“I’ll wait for you,” Derek said. “Good luck.”
Juan remembered how Derek’s serious relationship w
ith a girl had ended badly when she’d learned Derek was a werewolf. Was there any chance Cindy would want Juan anywhere near her now? He doubted it. But he had to know if she was all right, and he had to at least try to explain to her.
Chapter Ten
Cynthia finished dressing in her own clothes, bundled up the lace garment, and headed for Darlene’s den, where she heard animated conversation.
“There you are,” her friend said, smiling. “I’ve been chatting with Kelly. She’s looking for a job. I need help with my house right now, and Kelly said she needs a place to stay. I invited her to stay here, if she wants to. I’d also pay her for helping out around my house, until she can get back on her feet.”
Cynthia studied Kelly’s earnest expression. “Would you like to do that?”
“Yeah, I would,” Kelly said. “I can use the money, and Mrs. Lovejoy invited me to stay in her home until I can afford a place. I’d like to work here.”
“That sounds like a good arrangement for both of you,” Cynthia agreed.
Darlene looked pointedly at her. “Now, tell me what happened.”
Cynthia introduced herself to Kelly and explained the events leading to her return in a lace garment. She left out the part about the Hawks and Juan and Derek looking like werewolves. Darlene would think she was loony. After she assured her friend she was fine, she told them both good-bye and ventured outside, anxious to go home and try to make sense of all this.
She found Juan hurrying up the walk to the house. He looked normal now, although his clothing was torn in places. No sign of blood remained. Had she been imagining what she thought she’d seen? The odor of acrid smoke lingered on him.
“Hi,” he said.
She nodded to him, and noticed the worry in his eyes. No longer sure if they could have any kind of close relationship, she waited. Tears burned her eyes at the thought of never seeing Juan again. Everything she’d gone through today left her reeling. She needed time to sort through what she’d witnessed and come to grips with it.
