“Toby?” Kat called into the house. The lights were off again and there was no answer. “He’s crazy. It’s getting too cold to be going on runs.”
“If it keeps his mind off of the drugs...” Briggs offered. He closed the door behind them, wiping his boots on the floor mat.
“I’m going to go get changed for our movie night,” Kat said with a kiss. “There’s popcorn in the cabinet above the stove.”
Briggs walked through the house, reached the kitchen, and instantly stopped – there was something in the air. Some scent. Something...dirty and dangerous. His hackles immediately went up. He was ready to shift at a moment’s notice. Something here wasn’t right. His golden eyes scanned the darkness, but they could make out no one hiding in the shadows.
The room was clear now, though it hadn’t always been. Someone had been here, and he didn’t mean Toby. Someone had broken in, the stenches of fear, anger, and adrenaline threatening to overwhelm him the closer he came to the kitchen door. Briggs knelt down next to it. The frame was shattered, the door barely closed now. He opened it carefully, noticing that the deadbolt had broken through the frame. A muddy boot-print was on the outside of the door, directly next to the door handle.
He shut the door as firmly as he could and looked around. He took a deep breath. Whoever had entered the house – it was two men – had only gone as far as the kitchen. Their scent ended there. Whatever they had wanted, they had only needed to go that far.
Thieves? What had they taken? He sniffed deeper, taking in everything as he walked around in the dark kitchen. The cabinets had no scent of the men, nor did the stove, fridge…
The table.
Briggs walked closer, seeing a piece of paper on it. How had he missed it before?
He grabbed it, scanning it quickly:
IF YOU WANT YOUR BROTHER BACK,
TURN OVER THE SHIFTER
BRING HIM TO 148 REPUBLIC LANE
The scrawl was quick and sloppy, but it told him everything he needed to know. Toby wasn’t on a run. He’d been kidnapped. The smell of fear had been Toby’s. He hadn’t been able to pick it out, not exactly, with his smell everywhere else in the room, but now, he knew it was true. There was the anger of the others when he had fought back and then the sharp flood of adrenaline as the fight had went on. Those men had come here with one thing in mind.
They wanted him.
“I’m going to rinse off real quick,” Kat called from the bathroom.
“Okay,” Briggs shouted back. He pulled out a chair and collapsed. The HDF had been here. They knew where Kat lived. They had taken Toby, her brother – no, he was Briggs’ friend – and they wouldn’t stop until he turned himself over.
He considered going to Kat and telling her what had happened. Together, they could go to the cops. Maybe they could rescue Toby. Briggs growled to himself. It wouldn’t work. The second the HDF saw cops swarming the place, they would kill Toby.
There was only one way to get Toby back safely.
He had told himself he didn’t need to do anything alone anymore. He had Kat now. But this was something he couldn’t get her involved in. If he wanted to save Toby, and keep Kat safe, he would have to go it alone one more time.
Just once more. Toby would be safe. Kat would be safe.
She wouldn’t understand, of course. She would try to stop him. She would beg to go with him, or wrack her brain for some way to rescue her brother, but it would do no good. When they failed, she would blame herself.
It would be better if she could blame him. He would rescue Toby. And she would be thankful for that, even if she blamed him for never coming back. He had almost found happiness. He was wanted, valued, loved. Even though it was short lived, he realized he wouldn’t trade it for anything else.
“I love you, Kat Crawford,” he whispered. He got out of the chair, grabbed the paper, crumbled it up, and put it in his pocket. He slipped out the front door, intent on never coming back.
One more time.
*
When Kat came out of the shower, the house was still entirely dark. The smell of popcorn, which she had expected upon leaving the shower, wasn’t there. Even the TV, which should have been on by now, whether by Toby or Briggs, was quiet.
“Briggs? Toby?” she called, walking through her quiet house. “Guys? This isn’t funny anymore.”
This would be just like one of Toby’s jokes, and she knew it wouldn’t take much prodding to get Briggs in on it. She walked into the living room, flipping on lights as she went, then ended up in the kitchen. She flipped the light on, but no one was in there, either.
She walked back past the bathroom, into her room, but Briggs wasn’t there. Toby wasn’t in his room. Neither was Briggs. She called out their names again, to no answer. No one was there except for her. A creeping sense of dread, that she had been pushing away, was now rising up in her. It threatened to overwhelm her, but she wouldn’t let it.
She quickly toweled off and changed into a pair of jeans and a shirt. She pulled on socks and an old pair of shoes. If asked, she wouldn’t know why she did it – it just seemed like the right idea. She took another loop of her house, looking out the back window, then peering out the front door. There was no one out there. The only thing in front of her house was her car and her mailbox.
Her car and her mailbox?
Where was Briggs’ car?
Could Briggs and Toby left to get food?
She walked through the house, looking for Toby’s cell phone. It was gone. She tried not to panic, but she called it almost immediately. It rang five times before going to voicemail. She had told Toby countless times that when he called, he was supposed to answer. It was part of their agreement.
She grabbed her car keys, ready to go out, then paused. What good would it do? She lived in the city, and it’s not like she would randomly stumble on them eating at some restaurant. All she could do was wait, even though it was driving her crazy. She sat down on the couch, phone in her hand, and waited.
*
Nearly two hours later, the phone rang. She had drifted off into a sort of trance, void of thoughts and feelings. When the phone blared in the silence, she jumped. She looked down at it. Toby. Her brother was calling. She flipped open the phone, ready to tear him a new one, and –
“Kat.”
The voice on the other end was slippery, predatory, and dangerous. It wasn’t Toby.
“Jay,” she said, swallowing. The terror that had been inside of her now grew tenfold. “What did you do with my brother?”
“Me? I haven’t touched him, Kat,” Jay told her, a slight giggle after her name. “He’s fine.”
“I’m calling the cops.”
“Ooh, that wouldn’t be a good idea, lover. He’s not hurt, not yet. But if you call the cops, that a certain way to get him hurt. Think about it.”
“Jay, what do you want?”
“Well, at first, we wanted your boyfriend. But me? I want you.”
First? Boyfriend? You.
“You’re with the HDF,” she said. As the words left her mouth, she knew it was true. It explained his comments back when he had nearly attacked her. Somehow, her ex-boyfriend was a member of the Human Defense Force. “You’re pathetic, Jay.”
“Only because you decided to fuck a Shifter,” Jay spat. She could hear the venom in his voice, could almost imagine his face twisted into a mask of rage. “But he’s going to pay, and unless you bring yourself to me and tell me you’re sorry, your brother is going to pay, too.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“We have them both, now. Your Shifter boyfriend turned himself over to let your brother go free,” he said, pausing to let everything sink in. Then he started laughing. “He walked right into a trap.”
“Jay, tell me where you are. I’ll turn myself in. Just let both of them go free,” Kat pleaded. She would do anything for her brother and Briggs. “I’ll do anything.”
“Anything?” he said, considering. “Hmm. Well, I�
��ll think about it. We’re at 148 Republic Lane, Kat. Remember, if you try anything, like calling the cops, then they’re dead men.”
The phone clicked off. If Kat had been standing, she would have collapsed. Instead, she took a few deep breaths, trying to banish her fear. Trying to process what had happened. She walked into her kitchen to get a glass of water and it all became clear.
The back door had blown open, the frame shattered. She had missed it before, but now she saw that someone had broken in. They had kidnapped Toby and taken him, in hopes of using him to bait her and Briggs into coming after him. Somehow, Briggs had found this out while she was in the shower and had gone by himself.
He’d intentionally sacrificed himself to rescue Toby. Her glass of water completely forgotten, she found herself on the verge of tears. Of course he would do it alone. It was what he was used to. He hadn’t needed anyone else for so long that he wouldn’t know how to ask for help.
He should have asked for help, she thought, though she knew he never would have. Now, she had to figure out how to save them.
She couldn’t call the cops. She didn’t even want to think of what would happen if she did. She’d been so caught up in her work the past few years, she didn’t know anyone else she could call. She would have to do this alone.
*
“Man, you really fucked up,” Toby said, laughing again.
Briggs looked over at him and struggled against his restraints. No matter how much he pulled, he couldn’t seem to get free. He had tried to shift, more times than he could count, but he couldn’t shift, either. There was an IV attached to his arm, dripping some fluid into his system, and he had come to the conclusion that that was the cause. He was growing drowsy, too. Something wasn’t right.
“I had to try.”
“Yeah, my sister is going to kill you, though. You left her in the shower? That’s rough, man.”
Briggs had explained what had happened to him. Toby had actually had the guts to laugh at it. They were facing certain death to these HDF men, and Toby had laughed. Now, he was laughing even more.
“I appreciate the gesture, man,” Toby said. Somehow, he seemed resigned to his fate. Maybe after years as living as a drug addict, he wasn’t afraid of death anymore. If that was the case, Briggs wished he could be more like him.
Because he was afraid. He didn’t want to die. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with Kat, sitting on the couch with Toby and bullshitting, and falling asleep in Kat’s arms. After everything he’d been through, he had seen a light at the end of the tunnel.
But he’d also known that walking into this was probably one of the last things he’d ever do. But he’d expected these men to honor their part of the deal and let Toby go. He’d been wrong.
“Well, well,” a skinny man said, coming close to them. He moved in quick, erratic movements, and his speech wasn’t much better.
“Fuck off, Jay,” Toby said from beside him. This was Jay? Briggs looked down at his legs: one was obviously fake. There was something wrong with him, and Briggs could see exactly why Kat had got rid of him. He was dangerous, scummy, and made Briggs shudder. And that was something that never happened.
“Toby!” he yelled, coming close and sticking one finger in Toby’s face. Toby tried to bite it off, but Jay was away from him and in front of Briggs next. Briggs gave him his best growl, and lunged against his restraints, but Jay didn’t even flinch. His eyes were black and dangerous. “So, you’re Kat’s new boyfriend.”
Briggs didn’t answer. Instead, he fought harder than ever before, determined to rip this man apart, but he couldn’t get free. Everything was getting sluggish.
“Look, my man,” Jay said. When Briggs’ eyes drooped and his head dropped, Jay slapped him across the face. The flash of pain immediately brought Briggs out of his grogginess. “This shit isn’t as good as what the government doles out, but it’s good enough to take you out of commission. The more you fight, the more you try to shift, the groggier it makes you. An unintended side effect of the cheap shit, of course, but for us – it works.”
Briggs had heard of these kind of drugs, of course. What Shifter hadn’t? Like any other self-respecting Shifter, he’d feared it and hoped he’d never have to experience it. Losing the ability to Shift, even in someone like himself who seldom felt the need to – was almost too much to bear. It was like losing a part of yourself.
“I’m going to kill you when I get out of here,” he told Jay. “That’s a promise.”
“You’re never getting out of here. And you’ll have to watch when I have my way with Kat.”
“What?” Briggs yelled, at the exact same time as Toby.
Now Jay was cracking up, slapping a hand on Briggs’ knee. “She’s coming here. I just got off the phone with her,” he said, holding up Toby’s phone with two fingers. He let it fall to the concrete floor, shattering into different pieces. “She’s decided it’s time to take me back.”
“No,” Briggs said.
“Yes,” Jay told him. “She called, looking for her dear brother. I told her exactly where we were. She has no idea what she’s walking into, of course. But when this is all over, she’ll be mine. And you two will be dead.”
“No!” Briggs roared, fighting against his restraints harder and harder. He wanted to rip through them. He felt them digging into his wrists, his ankles and his chest, but they wouldn’t give in. Jay laughed, just out of his reach.
Across the abandoned buildings floor, the other HDF members looked uneasy. There were eight of them in total, plus Jay. Too many of them for Kat to take on herself. Too many for Briggs, even if he was able to get free.
Because he’d gone off on his mission and kept Kat in the dark, he’d accidentally involved Kat in it. She would probably be here within minutes. Because of him, she’d have to face Jay – and he didn’t think he could bear to watch. He fought harder and harder.
Kat, don’t come here!
Kat, don’t…
Don’t.
Kat.
Then the drug took over his system and he passed out.
*
Kat pulled up to 148 Republic Lane. It was towards the edge of town, out along the highway. She’d driven by this place a couple of times: an old junkyard. The building had long been abandoned, but plenty of cars still stood inside of the massive fence, rusting until the end of time.
She parked out front and stepped out of the car, feeling the chill against her skin. She pulled her coat tighter and headed towards the old building. There were no lights inside, and the door was locked tight. She put her hands above her eyes and peered into the building through a dirty window, but it appeared deserted.
“Shit,” she muttered to herself. She knew what that meant. Inexorably, she walked around the building as if drawn to it. The gate to the junkyard proper had been left halfway open, the chains cut and dropped to the snowy ground. She could see a set of tire tracks and a couple of footprints leading into a row of old cars.
She knew where she had to go. She walked through, following the tire tracks, wanting to run and save Toby and Briggs, but she didn’t want to appear weak to anyone watching. The snow was falling good now, obscuring the tracks, but when she looked up, she realized she no longer needed to follow them.
MARS (BBW Bear Shifter MC Romance) (MC Bear Mates Book 1) Page 32
