by Sadie Hart
Brandt bolted for Shay. She staggered, her face pale. She’d clearly lost too much blood to get out of the way on her own. He heard Tate move in behind him and knew the other Hound would cover him. Then Timber was there, dragging one of Shay’s arms over her shoulders.
Damn it. No! Brandt lunged. “Get out of here!”
A gun fired and Brandt ducked, but never stopped moving. He caught Shay just as he heard a solid thump of a body hitting the ground. He didn’t know if it was Nathan or Charles, but he needed to get both girls off this path and somewhere safe. He jerked Shay toward the tree line just as he heard Timber give a panicked cry when Wolfe jerked her to him. The force that ripped Timber away made them all stumble. Brandt’s gun was knocked out of his hand when Shay fell into him. He held her up, even as his eyes sought out Timber.
Wolfe was gripping her arm and dragging her along with him. Timber kicked out, wild, desperate, and her foot slammed into the side of his knee. Her fist slashed down against his temple and Wolfe let her go, ducking to avoid another hit. Except Wolfe didn’t pull away. The clean, black outline of his gun lifted and Brandt felt his heart twist.
Timber jerked, her body spinning to avoid the shot before Wolfe even touched the trigger, but people just weren’t that fast. There was no outrunning a bullet and she was too close. “Timber!”
A shot fired, loud even amidst the chaos. The sulfur smell of gunpowder filled the air, and for that split second, Brandt couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move. Wolfe stumbled, red blossoming across his chest. Brandt had a split-second to realize that it hadn’t been Wolfe’s gun that had gone off after all, when a second shot did fire, and this time it was Wolfe’s, but his hand had already fallen and Brandt heard the thwap when the bullet struck a tree somewhere behind Timber.
He’d missed.
Then she was gone, vanishing into the trees.
Another shot and Wolfe hit the ground. Red splattered across the ground. Brandt staggered to a stop, only to see Tate standing in the middle of the path, gun raised. Steady.
For a moment they both stood there breathless, unable to anything more than stare at each other. Then finally, voice hoarse, Brandt managed a rough, “Thank you.”
“Fucking hell, waiting for a clear shot.” The muscle in Tate’s jaw twitched as he lowered his weapon. “Still didn’t think I had it, but couldn’t wait.”
“You did fantastic. That was a hell of a fine shot.” Brandt turned to see Timber step back onto the path, her eyes locked on the dead man sprawled in the dirt.
Brandt joined her. She looked like she was waiting for Wolfe to jump up from the dead. Then, slowly, he saw the tension seep out of her shoulders and the first signs of relief spread across her face. “He’s dead,” she said, her voice soft, wondering, as he reached her side.
“Yeah.”
Her eyes closed, and she took a deep, deep breath, down to her toes, and let it go. A tension that had gripped her chest for so long finally seemed to ease. “I probably shouldn’t be happy he’s dead but—”
Brandt touched her jaw, tilting her face up with the slightest pressure of his fingertips. “It’s okay to be happy. You’re safe. Shay’s safe. He can’t hurt anyone else. He can’t hurt you anymore. That enough of a reason to be relieved. To be happy.”
“Shay,” Timber spun and Brandt followed her gaze. Shay leaned against a tree trunk. Her face was white, not that the man standing next to her looked much better. Nathan had shifted back and was slumped at the base of the tree. There was a spot of blood on his shirt from where shifting back to human hadn’t quite healed the gunshot.
Then again, Brandt would have been surprised if Wolfe’s gun had been loaded with anything but silver bullets.
“Let’s get a medic out here,” he yelled, and the wolfhound who had been lying in the brush took off down the path, a silver blur that disappeared as he raced for the road.
Brandt wrapped his arm around Timber’s shoulders and pulled her close. Brushed his lips across her temple in a soothing kiss. “Why don’t you go to the hospital with Shay and Nathan? I have to wrap things up here, but Shay could probably use a friend.”
Timber leaned into him, lingering for a few seconds in his embrace before she pulled away and went to Shay. Brandt waited until the medics arrived, but when Timber waved goodbye, he smiled and got to work.
Chapter Twenty Four
Timber helped Shay to Nathan’s couch while the Delphi alpha hobbled in behind them. He was faring much better than his enforcer, but the silver had begun to take its toll on both of them. “You should have stayed at the hospital,” Timber muttered as she helped Shay sit. “Both of you.”
Nathan grunted from somewhere behind her, and Timber turned to see him painfully lowering into his recliner. His eyes closed the moment his butt hit the cushions. “We’ll be fine.”
“It’s not our first rodeo, Timber,” Shay said, her smile tight. “Hurts like hell every time, but pain passes.”
“Does silver poisoning?” She didn’t bother to hide the caustic tone. Shay had been shot twice, then held there while the silver slowly ate its way through her system. She needed to be in the hospital.
She needed a doctor. She needed to be okay.
Shay caught her hand and squeezed. “Yeah. Neither one of us was shot bad enough to waste a hospital bed. I promise. Nathan has a spare bedroom that will do just fine for me until STE has finished processing my poor house and I can go back in and fix up the mess.”
Timber sank down onto the couch next to her friend. “Call me. I’ll help.”
“Everyone in the pack will,” Nathan murmured from his chair, his eyes closed. He sounded like he was already half asleep.
Timber glanced at Shay. The woman looked just as tired, her eyes furiously blinking as she fought to stay awake. Shay never gave anything up without a fight. Timber squeezed her hand one last time before she rose. “I’ll get going now. Call if you need anything.”
Shay murmured a sleepy, “Okay.”
Timber let herself out, the afternoon sun warm against her face as she used the key Shay had given her to lock the door behind her. She turned toward the street and her car when she saw the sleek STE vehicle parked in front of it, Brandt leaning against the passenger door. His dark, curly hair looked like it’d been bronzed by the sun, rich golden highlights peeking out where the sun touched.
His arms were folded across his chest, but he didn’t look upset. If anything, Timber could swear she saw his eyes soften as she walked toward him, turning a warm, gentle brown. His lips hinted at a smile. He dropped his head back so it thunked the car. “I have a present for you.”
Her heart thumped and then picked up speed. Brandt had always been able to do that, make her heart race with just a glance or a smile. She should have known the first time it happened that he’d be the one to snare her heart as his. “Oh?”
“Take a ride with me. We’ll come back for your car.”
These past two days had been so liberating. Freedom again. She’d been able to drive herself back and forth from Brandt’s to the hospital, to go to the grocery store, to be normal without having to worry about Wolfe finding her. She still found herself jumping at shadows, and the nightmares still came on a regular basis, but for the first time, Timber felt safe.
And a lot of that had to do with this man.
“Okay,” she said with a soft smile, and Brandt turned to open the door for her.
He looked relaxed for the first time since she’d met him. She knew he was sleeping better. Like her, she didn’t think Brandt had gotten much sleep over the course of the past few weeks. Not with Wolfe out there. Not with the likelihood he would kill again.
She recognized the road leading up to her house and shot him a questioning look. “Kicking me out?”
She didn’t believe she’d said that, even as she said it. Brandt was as much invested in nurturing their relationship as she was, but then again, maybe he felt she missed her space. Maybe...
“No. It jus
t seemed like a fitting place to do this thing I thought of.”
Timber frowned at him, but Brandt didn’t say another word until he pulled into her drive and stopped in front of her house. “Come on,” he said as he got out of the car.
She followed him out, working her way around to his side while he dug a large white box out of the back seat. It was slim, but tall. He set it on the lawn, right next to a ring of rocks. He flipped open the box and her heart stalled, a flash of pain arrowing straight through her.
Those broken eyes that had once been hers stared up at her. She could see plea in her face, for Charles to stop. To just go away.
Brandt touched her hand and she glanced down, just as he pressed a lighter into her hand. “I figured this was where you came to start over. It should be where you truly start over. No reason to ever have to look back.”
Timber tried to turn away before she could cry, but Brandt cupped her chin and forced her to look at him. His voice was soft and low as he continued, soothing.
“In some cultures they say pictures steal a person’s soul.” He glanced down at the one on top. It was large, a poster-sized image. He didn’t have to wonder what she was thinking. One look at the woman in those pictures, and Timber knew that with every click of that camera Charles had been whittling away her soul. There’d been moments when she’d been sure not a piece of it could survive him. Not a piece of her. “You deserve the chance to take back what he stole from you. Burning them won’t fix everything, but maybe it’s a starting point.”
She felt the warm slide of tears down her cheeks, and she leaned into him. Her fist gripped the lighter in her hand. “Thank you,” she whispered, touching her lips to his. “Thank you.”
She kissed him again. The kind of kiss meant for healing, for strength, the kind built on those beginning sparks of love. Brandt skimmed fingers over her jaw, tender, a constant reminder that he loved her just as much as she loved him.
She pulled away and turned to the images. One by one, Brandt lifted one up, removed the frame, and held it while she lit a corner on fire. Together they watched the broken, shattered pieces of her soul burn and fall into the pit in the form of ashes. Ashes of a newly risen phoenix.
And this time, when she rose, it’d be on wings stronger, more vibrant, un-breakable. Together they burned away the darkest nightmares of her past so that she could truly forge a future, out of ash and fire, into something greater: Love.
When the last picture lay crumpled and smoking in the pit, Timber leaned against Brandt, his arm around her. His lips touched her temple, a silent, loving touch filled with strength and promise, and she’d never felt more right. More complete.
And for all that was bad, all that Charles had done to them both, something wonderful had been born from it after all.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To my readers. You guys blow my mind every day. I wouldn’t be able to live my dream without you all and I thank so much, every single day.
To my closest friends and family for having faith in me and helping me when the beginning of this year was so rough. In the roughest times, you find out who you true friends are and I couldn’t have done it without you guys.
To my fabulous editing team and beta readers. This book really shined under your help, thank you so much.
About the author: During the day, Sadie Hart works as a secretary in a library. At night, she writes steamy, paranormal romances revolving around the things that go bump in the night - both the spooky and the naughty kind. She lives in Michigan with two large dogs and a flying pig, who’s possibly a superhero and possibly a figment of her imagination. You can find her website here: http://sadiehart.com/
Shifter Town Enforcement Series:
Hounded
Cry Sanctuary
Shifter Town Enforcement Volume 1 (Hound & Cry Sanctuary Set)
Big Cats Don’t Purr
Christmas Moon: Shifter Town Enforcement Novella
Novellas and Short Stories:
Silver Bells (free Christmas short story)
Moonlit Lovers Short Story Anthology
What the Heart Haunts (also available in Bending Steele)
Bending Steele
Thank you for reading!
