by Paige Tyler
The sound of Hardy’s voice made her jump. Hardy and Patterson were both searching the hangar. Her luck was getting worse by the second.
She heard a clicking sound that she recognized from her shooting lessons with Gage. One of the men had thumbed the hammer back on a pistol.
“Unless I shoot you first,” Patterson answered his boss.
Oh please, shoot each other.
Hardy laughed. “Find her and I’ll let you bring her with us to Mexico. You can do anything you want with her until we get there. Then I’ll shoot her and mail the parts back to Dixon in a box.”
Crap.
“Deal,” Patterson said. “But we need to get out of here soon. All that shooting is going to bring the cops out here.”
“Carlos and the others will keep them busy.” Hardy snorted. “What, did you think I was going to bring them down to Mexico with us?”
Patterson blew out a breath. “Damn. You can be a bastard sometimes, you know that?”
“When we find Stone, I’ll show you what kind of bastard I really am.”
Footsteps came into view on the other side of the toolbox Mac was hiding behind. She cringed and quickly looked at the shelves to her right. Could she make it there without being seen?
She was about to risk it when a long, low wolf howl filled the air.
Gage.
“What the hell is that?” Hardy asked.
The howl came again, closer this time. It was followed by another, then another, and another, each from different directions, each bouncing and echoing off the metal buildings until it was impossible to figure out where the eerie sounds were coming from.
“We need to get the hell out of here,” Patterson said. Footsteps headed away from her. “Let’s forget about Stone and get on the plane.”
Mac grinned. That’s right. You’d better run. It wasn’t just Gage out there; it was his whole pack. For the first time since Hardy’s men had grabbed her, she started thinking that maybe this was going to end okay.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Hardy shouted. “It’s just a bunch of coyotes howling at the moon.”
“I don’t think so.” Patterson’s voice was farther away now. “Something attacked us when we grabbed the reporter. It took out Don’s sedan and everyone in it. Then it ripped Jasper right out of the backseat of my car, taking the door with it. I tried to stop it, but it was too fast.”
The howls sounded like they were getting closer. Mac took a quick peek around the side of the toolbox. Patterson was standing all the way out by the big roll-up door at the hangar’s entrance, looking back toward the building she’d escaped from. He shifted from foot to foot, like he was about to take off running at any second.
Hardy laughed. “What, do you think the big, bad boogeyman is out there coming to get us?”
Shouts came from somewhere outside, followed immediately by the sound of gunfire.
“I don’t know,” Patterson murmured. “But I’m not hanging around to find out. Something tells me you’re not making that plane to Mexico.”
Mac held her breath, waiting for Hardy to say something snide in reply, but instead loud gunshots filled the building. She covered her ears with her hands and hunkered down. What the hell was that?
“Come back here, you fucking coward, so I can shoot you like the piece of shit you are!”
Hands still over her ears, she peeked out from behind the toolbox again and saw Hardy standing in the open doorway, a huge automatic pistol in his hand that dwarfed the ones she’d fired at the SWAT compound. She couldn’t believe he’d shot at Patterson. Now she just had to wait for Hardy to leave and she’d be home free.
She knelt down behind the toolbox again, listening for the sounds of Hardy’s retreating footsteps. When she didn’t hear anything, she leaned close to the floor and looked under the rolling toolbox. Hardy was nowhere in sight. She frowned. Why hadn’t she heard him leave?
He was gone. That was all that mattered.
Mac slowly started to get up, only to scream when a hand grabbed her hair from behind and yanked her to her feet.
“Looks like I’ll be making that plane after all,” Hardy whispered in her ear as he shoved that big cannon of a gun to her head.
***
Gage slipped quietly through the narrow alley between the two hangars, soundlessly making his way along the metal wall on one side while Xander and Brooks moved along the other. He inhaled deeply, sifting through the barrage of scents on the night breeze that moved across the airfield. He couldn’t smell Mackenzie yet, but he hadn’t expected to—not this far from where she was being held.
He and his small team would slip quietly around to the airfield side of the hangars, approaching from downwind, while the rest of the Pack headed straight for the front entrance of South Salinas Air and the crowd of armed men they’d seen there. He told Mike and his team to be as loud as possible when they initiated contact to draw Hardy’s men away. Then he and his entry team would slip into the hangar, find Mackenzie, and get her out before anyone even knew they were there.
This would have been a pretty simple hostage rescue op if it wasn’t for one factor—a lot of the hangars in this part of the airfield were constructed of lightweight metal. Without knowing exactly where Mackenzie—or any other innocent bystanders—were, there was no way his team could risk firing their weapons in the direction of the hangar. The bullets were likely to go straight through every wall in the place and keep on going.
Mike and his team were going to have to deal with Hardy’s men without weapons. Well, without traditional weapons anyway. For the first time ever, Gage had given his pack the freedom to fight the way they preferred.
“Claws, fangs, or muscles. I don’t care how you do it,” he’d said. “Those men took Mackenzie. By the time we’re done, I want them to be sorry they were ever born.”
Gage only prayed the pure and simple shock value of a pack of werewolves hitting them would be the kind of distraction he needed.
When they reached the airfield side of the hangars a few buildings down from South Salinas, Gage tapped his radio mic three times in rapid succession—the go signal.
Immediately, a long, drawn-out howl shattered the normal background noises of the airfield. Moments later, another howl sounded a little farther away, and then another one closer. At the same time, Gage knew Mike would be killing all power to the hangar, throwing everything in the area into total darkness.
“I think that should do the job of attracting some attention,” Xander whispered.
A few seconds later, Gage heard gunfire coming from the front of the South Salinas hangar, followed closely by shouts as Mike’s team hit the men there.
“Yup, that’s a distraction all right,” Brooks agreed.
Gage started toward the hangar when the sounds of running footsteps caught his attention. Shit, Hardy must have had some of his men stationed along this side of the hangar, too.
Time for Plan B.
He pointed at Xander and Brooks, then in the direction of the footsteps. He pointed at himself and motioned he’d continue on to the hangar.
Xander frowned, clearly less than thrilled with the idea of Gage going in alone, but his squad leader didn’t argue. The goal here was to get Mackenzie out, and Gage wouldn’t be able to do that with bad guys chasing him from behind.
Gage hesitated for half a second as Xander and Brooks stepped out from behind the concealment of the little alley they were in and streaked toward the approaching men. Their attack was so sudden and vicious that Hardy’s men barely had time to raise their weapons and fire.
Gage didn’t wait to see more. Turning, he sprinted toward the target, hoping the noise on this side of the hangar didn’t ruin their plan.
The savage growls behind him told him Xander had shifted at least partially—human vocal cords couldn’t make those sounds. He had no doubt that at some point Brooks would be dropping his tactical gear and shifting to his full wolf form. While several of the team’s m
embers could handle a full wolf shift—Xander, Cooper, Brady, Remy, and Carter included—Brooks was the only one besides Gage who could handle anything close to an instantaneous transformation. Gage imagined when that happened, the shouts were going to get a lot louder. He needed to get to Mackenzie out before that.
Gage was nearing the big open doors of the South Salinas hangar and the private jet running its engines when an unexpectedly powerful scent hit him, forcing him to slow. It was Mackenzie’s. But the scent wasn’t coming from inside the hangar. It was coming from outside. And it was close.
Then he saw Mackenzie step out from an entry alcove twenty feet away. Gage almost dropped to his knees in relief. She’d gotten away and was already safe. That was when he realized she wasn’t alone. Hardy was right behind her, holding that big Desert Eagle of his to her head.
“You and your cop friends are going to let me get on my plane and fly out of here,” Hardy ordered from where he hid behind Mackenzie. “If you don’t, I’ll shoot your girlfriend right in front of you.”
***
Mac tried to run to Gage, but Hardy tightened his hold in her hair, yanking her back. She stifled a scream and attempted to twist in his grip, but it was useless. He literally had her by the scruff.
She tensed, ready to jab her elbow back and smash the jerk in the face, but immediately went still as Hardy pressed his pistol harder against her temple.
“Drop it, Dixon, or I’ll shoot her right now.” Hardy pulled her backward so that most of his body was hidden by the edge of the door. “I swear I’ll put a bullet right through her head.”
It took everything in Mac not to give in to the overwhelming urge to struggle against Hardy. Now wasn’t the time to do anything stupid. Gage was here and obviously had a plan on how to deal with the situation. This was what he did for a living. She just had to be ready to react once she figured out what his plan was.
She searched Gage’s face, silently begging him to give her a hint, but he was focused on Hardy. Then, faster than she could have imagined, he moved in a blur, slipping inside the open door of the hangar with them, and disappeared into the darkness. The rapid move shocked Hardy just as much as it shocked her. The man turned, yanking her around with him like a shield.
“I’m telling you—I’ll shoot her!”
A low chuckle came out of the darkness. “Then what will you do without a woman to hide behind?”
Hardy moved slightly away from the corner he was hiding behind, careful to keep her in front of him as he tried to get an angle on Gage. Now the thug couldn’t seem to figure out who he wanted to cover with his pistol—her or the patch of darkness where Gage was hiding.
“Come out and show yourself, Dixon,” Hardy ordered. “And you’d better not be holding a weapon, or we’ll both get to find out what I’ll do without her to hide behind.”
No answer.
Mac strained to see in the darkness. She couldn’t even guess where Gage was. Could he shoot Hardy while the man was hiding behind her?
Hardy backed out of the hangar and onto the tarmac, the pistol still firmly planted against her head. “Come out where I can see you, Dixon, or I’ll kill her!”
Mac gasped as a shape moved out of the shadows. For a moment, her eyes couldn’t comprehend what she was seeing. The tall, broad-shouldered figure she’d expected was instead replaced with a large gray wolf.
Gage.
He’d told her he could turn into a wolf, but she hadn’t expected him to be so…so…huge. Or so beautiful. All Mac could do was stare at him, transfixed by his amazing presence.
“What the hell…?” Hardy muttered.
Gage bared his teeth in a snarl as he charged, moving so fast he was nothing more than a big, gray blur.
Mac barely had time to scream before Gage slammed into her and Hardy. The blow probably would have broken her in half if Gage had actually struck her squarely, but his big front paws skimmed over her right shoulder, hitting the taller Hardy with the force of a moving truck.
Still, the glancing blow sent her flying. She hit the ground hard enough to knock the air from her lungs.
Hardy’s gun went off, but the sound was drowned out by Gage’s snarl. Heart in her throat, Mac rolled onto her hip to see Gage clamp down on Hardy’s arm with his enormous teeth. After a few savage shakes, Hardy cried out in pain and dropped the gun.
Mac lunged for the weapon. She didn’t know if Gage needed her help, but she was determined to give it to him anyway. She scrambled to pick up the gun, cursing as she fumbled to get her hands around the large grip. She turned around just in time to see Gage going for Hardy’s throat.
She quickly looked away. Even after everything that Hardy had done to them, she knew this wasn’t something she wanted to see.
When she looked back a few moments later, Gage was standing over Hardy’s lifeless body. As if sensing her eyes on him, Gage turned his big head toward her. He gazed at her with those mesmerizing gold eyes she’d come to love. They were filled with so many emotions that she almost cried.
He took a slow step toward her, then another and another until he was right in front of her. He seemed even bigger up close. She set the gun on the ground, then went up on her knees so she could look him in the eyes. Then, because she couldn’t help herself, she wrapped her arms around his neck, burying her face in his soft, thick fur.
Movement off to the right caught her attention. She lifted her head a little, expecting to see the rest of the Pack, but instead it was Roscoe Patterson. Something glinted in the glow of a distant airfield light—a gun.
And he was aiming it at Gage.
Without thought, Mac grabbed the pistol from the ground, somehow getting both hands around it on the first try, then instinctively aimed it like Gage had taught her. She squeezed the trigger as smoothly as her thundering heart would allow.
The boom from the thing was deafening, but that was nothing compared to the shockwave that reverberated through her. She’d planned to fire a second shot, but found herself sitting on her ass, the gun somewhere on the ground. She threw a quick glance in Patterson’s direction as she frantically searched for the weapon and was stunned to see him lying on the ground. He wasn’t moving, and in the darkness, she could see the big stain slowly spreading across his chest.
Oh, God. She’d killed him. She’d done it to save Gage’s life, and would do it again if she had to, but still…
Gage ran over to check anyway. He sniffed the body once, then loped back over to her. His eyes searched her face, as if asking, Are you okay? She sank her fingers in the fur around his ears, tugging him closer. Then, she wrapped her arms around his neck again and buried her face in his scruff like before.
She might have cried a little then—she was doing a lot of that these days—but she couldn’t be sure. Gage didn’t seem to mind. He simply rubbed his muzzle against her face and let her hold him. God, she could really get used to doing this.
After a while, Mac realized she couldn’t hear gunshots anymore. That must mean it was all over. She prayed the rest of the Pack was okay.
She pulled back to find Gage appraising her with questioning eyes. She smiled at him.
“I’m fine,” she assured him, but he didn’t look convinced. “They didn’t hurt me.”
That seemed to appease him. He nuzzled her neck with his huge snout and chuffed quietly.
“Yes, I love you, too,” she said with a soft laugh.
If someone had told her that one day she’d be carrying on a one-sided conversation with a werewolf, she would have called them crazy. But as she gazed into Gage’s expressive eyes, she decided that maybe the conversation wasn’t one-sided after all.
She ran her hand over his fur. “Thank you for coming to get me.”
He chuffed again in answer, then jerked his head toward the hangar. It took her a moment to realize he wanted her to follow him. When she nodded, he began walking that way. Now that Gage was here, the pain in her knee didn’t seem as bad as before and she fell into st
ep beside him, admiring how graceful he was for a creature so big. It was like walking with a pony.
They hadn’t reached the hangar yet when she heard the sirens approach. Inside the building, Gage stopped beside a pile of something on the floor. It took Mac a second to figure out what she was looking at, then it struck her.
“I never thought about that. You’re naked under all that fur.”
It probably should have been obvious, but she hadn’t actually thought about it until now.
He chuffed again. Not once, but three times. When his big, red tongue came rolling out, she realized she was hearing the werewolf equivalent of a laugh.
“What? You think that’s funny?” she asked, as she crossed her arms and looked at him. “Wonder how much you’ll be laughing if the cops show up and find you standing here naked after you turn back into a man—I’m assuming you are planning to change back before the cops get here, right?”
Now it was her turn to laugh as she got to see what a werewolf looked like when he blushed.
Chapter 14
“You still working on your story?” Zak asked, gesturing to her laptop as he slowly sat down at the picnic table where she’d been parked for the last fifteen minutes enjoying the unseasonably mild day and the very pleasant view of Gage and his pack playing volleyball with their shirts off.
She was never going to get tired of that.
Mac dragged herself away from all that eye candy to turn her attention to her friend. Zak had been out of the hospital for a full ten days, and he still looked beat-up. The swelling around his eyes and mouth had gone down, but it would take time for the bruises on his face and body to heal completely, and he was going to have to baby those broken ribs of his for weeks. She just thanked God he was up and about. Judging by the pile of food on his plate, his appetite was finally coming back, too. That was a relief. He was tall and lanky at the best of times. She was pretty sure he’d lost at least ten or fifteen pounds since Hardy’s goons had beaten the crap out of him.
“Yeah,” she said in answer to his question. “But I’m having a hard time coming up with a story that won’t get Gage and his men into hot water—or me for that matter.”
