by Jools Louise
Noah knelt in front of him, stroking his hair tenderly. “Where would I go, baby?” Noah asked huskily. “Who else is gonna put up with a slovenly old bear, hmmm?”
Fly choked out a laugh at the gentle teasing. “I didn’t think you wanted to be with a snippy, prissy drama queen,” he replied miserably.
“Who else would put up with you?” Noah replied with a laugh. “Besides, we didn’t get to finish what we started last night. Cockblocked by your darling mother.”
Fly laughed again at the disgust in Noah’s voice, mixed with the affectionate tongue-in-cheek mockery.
“Fly, your mom was arrested and charged with battery last night,” Kaden interjected seriously. “Skull said she was being transferred to the jail overnight, and then would face the charges in court today. She escaped custody, though. Attacked Mabel, and then shifted and ran hell for leather into the woods. Freddy’s been searching the area from above, but so far, nobody’s seen her.”
“She had help,” Fly said glumly. “Someone let her into the apartment complex last night. She rang the bell, and then managed to get past the security door and eye scanner downstairs, which is why she got to me. I would never have let her in, otherwise.”
“Of course not,” Alfie said. “Do you know who could be helping her?”
Fly shrugged again. “She was seeing a guy, but I don’t know who. I figured, since she came here now, that she might have dumped him. That’s what she usually does with her lovers. Takes all their money, then when they can’t accommodate her anymore, she ditches them before leeching on to the next poor sucker.”
Alfie gave him a light kiss on the cheek. “Well, I’m sure she’ll show up again, that’s for certain.”
Fly shuddered at the thought of what she could do. Meredith had actually struck him this time. He’d seen a look in her eyes that had made him quail. She had wanted him dead in that moment, and he had read the truth on her face.
“What did you mean when you mentioned your brother?” Noah asked suddenly.
Fly tensed, closing his eyes, and then looked at his mate. “My brother died when we were kids,” he explained. “We all grew up together, these guys, me, and my brother.” He gestured to his fellow cheetah shifters, who all looked sad. “My mother blamed me for his death.”
“It wasn’t Fly’s fault, not at all,” Haste cut in, shaking his head emphatically. “Mercury used to do silly stunts, showing off, always competitive. He made a fatal mistake, racing a damned freight train, for goodness’s sake. The train won when Mercury tripped crossing in front of it. He was badly injured. Meredith said that he didn’t survive. The ambulance took him away, and we never saw him again.”
“Meredith went ballistic,” Fleet said, looking horrified. “She doted on Mercury. He was the oldest, and the one who always obeyed her to her face, but he was the most rebellious in truth. He hated being under her thumb, always having to follow her vast litany of rules.”
“He loved being free to run,” Fly said softly, barely audible. “He would take off, and we would race each other, for fun, laughing our socks off. He was so carefree when we ran. She was as nasty to him as she was to me, behind closed doors,” he added, glancing at his friends. “She made us feel so awful. We could never do anything right. In public, though, she seemed to give him more attention, always praising him, as though he was her favorite. It was all a sham. She never let me see him one last time, made some terrible accusations. That was the day I moved out. I’d had enough. My friends’ families put me up for a while, before I headed out on my own. Mother kept tabs, though, never letting me get too far away from her.” He heard the bitterness in his voice, not even attempting to hide it. He’d just unraveled in front of all these people, they might as well hear the worst of it.
“The timing of her visit is a little unusual,” Kaden interjected quietly. “You were rescued from that mine over three years ago, and yet she’s never bothered to try to contact you until now. I think it might be an idea to dig a little deeper. She’s obviously connected to my father, Daniel. I wonder who else she knows.”
“You’re thinking Flashpoint?” Noah asked, his tone hard.
Kaden nodded slowly. “Those guys are real good at infiltrating our little town. Remember what happened with Freddy? Flashpoint have hunters, and seem to be adept at hiding in plain sight. They recruited a young guy, Joseph, brainwashing him into hating us because his mother couldn’t be saved by shifter blood. I’m sure they didn’t stop at Joseph.”
“Do you think my mother might be involved with one of those thugs?” Fly asked, horrified. “She’s a shifter. Why would she do such a thing? It makes no sense.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know who they are,” Kaden replied. “Daniel was always really good at hiding his true colors. Kathleen, my stepmom, never knew until it was too late. He was always charming, always said the right thing at the right time.”
“You didn’t think she’d ever hit you,” Noah reminded Fly. “And she broke your nose without a second thought. Whoever’s hiding her is giving her courage. The question is, as Kaden said, why now?”
Just then there was a huge rumble, like an earthquake, that shook the building. Fly quailed, moving closer to Alfie, who held him tightly. “What was that?” he asked.
“Trouble,” Kaden said, palming his cellphone. A moment later he was racing out the door. Before he disappeared, he sent them all a look of complete horror. “The hotel just blew up,” he said angrily. “The fire crew is struggling to contain the blaze. It could spread.”
They all got up, and filed after Kaden, determined to help. Fly raced between Noah and Alfie, his cheetah friends following closely behind. Why didn’t people just leave them alone? Where did it all end?
* * * *
The hotel had collapsed on one side, the rest of it teetering dangerously. The force of the blast had sent bricks and mortar flying in all directions, and several cars parked in the small lot in front of the hotel were totaled. Noah saw two bodies lying on the ground, and recognized, sadly, Reece and Chad, two wolf shifters who had been in the Colorado mine with him. Fuck. This killing just didn’t seem to be quitting anytime soon. Noah wanted to rip Ghost apart, limb from limb, for daring to attack this town again. They’d all been through so much. What had Ghost suffered that was worse than anyone else here? He’d become a paraplegic because he himself had wanted to kill shifters in his own platoon, and it had backfired. Ghost played the role of being a victim to a T, using the rationale to excuse his psychotic attitude toward a community who had done him no harm…until he’d gone gunning for them.
John came running over, his face smudged with soot. His eyes were stark. “We need to get the fire under control,” he said. “I’ve got Ethan and the Spirit Ink guys bringing a hose over, to try and help. The fire crew is struggling.”
The firefighters had two hoses, and were spraying the inferno determinedly, but even in the short time since the explosion had occurred, the fire was intense. Noah wondered why it had spread so fast.
“It was hooked up to the gas supply, and it looks as though it may have started in the kitchen, so there’s a lot of fuel in there to give it some oomph,” John said, obviously reading Noah’s expression.
“You can tell so soon?” Fly asked, clinging to Noah like a limpet. Noah wrapped his arm around his mate, and with Alfie on his other side, the pair of them made sure Fly was surrounded. The guy was shaking like a leaf.
John gave Fly a sympathetic look, nodding. “The explosion itself wouldn’t cause this kind of fire. So whoever set the explosive knew what they were doing to get maximum impact. An incendiary bomb.” He shrugged. “It’s what I’d do.”
Noah shot him a mildly shocked glance. “You’re really scary sometimes, do you know that?”
John, for once, didn’t respond with his usual light-hearted banter, but instead stared at the two bloodied corpses lying on the ground. “Whoever did this is a lot scarier,” he replied grimly. “I wonder if these guys were targeted
because of the mine.”
“My mom was staying at the hotel, I think,” Fly said, in a tremulous voice. “We think she might have been connected to someone in Flashpoint, because of her link to Daniel, Kaden’s dad.”
“Ghost managed to escape again,” Kaden said as he came over, looking weary. “I just contacted Ryder, who said that Ghost, our old nemesis from the Two Spirit Tournament, managed to get someone to release him from the psyche unit he was in. Apparently, he convinced his shrink he wasn’t a psychopath, and one of his Flashpoint friends, a governor or something, signed off on the paperwork. That was a week ago.”
“I know,” John replied tautly, raking a hand through his dark hair, which fell loose to his shoulders. The big Brit looked savage and tough, like a warrior of old. “I did a little checking of my own, after Meredith showed up. It seemed too coincidental, given her link to Daniel. Daniel’s in isolation at the moment, but I think maybe it’s time we paid him a visit. If they can get a governor involved with their group, then their network is far bigger than we thought. Daniel’s linked to Ghost, and Meredith, and Kaden…and I can bet he isn’t finished with Sherman or Kathleen yet.”
“How would he manage to orchestrate anything?” Noah asked, puzzled. “If he’s in isolation.”
“Because of his connections to Flashpoint, my friend. Those motherfuckers are like fucking cockroaches, hiding in the dark, then spreading their filth. Daniel was put in solitary because we found out that he was part of the group that attacked Freddy. His dad and stepmom knew about his rare dual shifter side, the eagle and lynx forms, and wanted to make some extra cash. Daniel has a lot of connections, here and abroad, and we found a link to a consortium in London who buy and sell shifters. Just like what happened to you, Noah, in that fighting ring, the consortium gets involved in all sorts of blood sports. Fox hunting, badger baiting, and they just love shooting birds of prey out of the sky. If it breathes and bleeds, they’ll hunt it or fight it or shoot it.”
“Fox hunting?” Fly asked, sounding revolted. “Is that what happened to Cullen’s cousins in England? He told me that Flashpoint had murdered them, that you showed a video of what happened.”
John nodded. “Yeah. Cullen’s devastated. His English family is the one he’s closest to, despite the geography. His immediate family are far more distant, in terms of emotional connection, than his cousins across the pond. He’s been helping Ryder with a new operation, but he quit a few days ago, saying he couldn’t deal with what we found out. We need to send someone over there, to take down the consortium.”
“I’d like to be involved,” Noah said quietly. “Not in going to London, but I’d like to sign up for the new initiative. I heard Mikhail’s in training already.”
John moved closer, lowering his voice and glancing around carefully. “You’d be more than welcome,” he said. “We need trained operatives here in Sage, above and beyond the usual law enforcement. You’d be given advanced weapons training, and hand to hand combat.”
“Can I join, too?” Fly asked suddenly, and Noah looked down at his mate, shocked.
“You?” he asked, with more than a little surprise.
Fly snorted, and looked irritated. “I’m not just a pretty face,” he said, glaring up at Noah. “I’m tired of being scared of people and ending up a victim. I’d like to help bring these bastards down.” He sent a meaningful stare at where Reece and Chad lay, now covered in blankets. An ambulance crew had brought gurneys, and carefully placed each shifter into position, then wheeled them away with somber expressions on their faces.
“We couldn’t save them,” a voice said behind them, and they all turned to see Ronan, the wolves’ alpha, standing there, tears streaming down his face. Behind him were Stan and Eddy, who were equally grief-stricken. “We tried, but they were caught directly in the blast. They were finishing up breakfast in the kitchen.”
Fly cried out in relief, and wrenched away from Noah to hug his friends. “I’m so sorry,” he said sincerely. “You were all such fun to be around in the hospital, when we were released. You stayed strong, down in that mine.”
“Don’t,” Ronan said tearfully. “We’re not fun, we’re idiots. We let that bastard, Ghost, right back into town. He told us he wanted to make amends, and we believed him,” Ronan added bitterly.
John cursed beneath his breath, and pinned Ronan and the rest of the pack with a hard stare. “Is that right?” he said. “You do remember what he tried to do here, don’t you? He would have blown up the clinic, and the stadium, at the busiest time, during the Two Spirit Tournament. Is that the kind of person who’s reformed?”
“He had a woman with him, a shifter, and another who was human,” Stan cut in sharply, moving in between John and his alpha. “The human female made a good case for Ghost, said he had been evaluated and released from the hospital. She said his PTSD was responsible for his actions, and that he had come to terms with his issues. She said she was his psychiatrist. Meredith, the shifter, was real nice. Always so polite. We honestly didn’t have a clue they were anything but sincere. This town is all about giving people second chances. That’s what we wanted to do. To give them the benefit of the doubt. ”
Noah watched Fly’s knee-jerk response, the anger that erupted on his face. “Why is everyone always so fooled by that bitch?” he said bitterly. “She’s not polite, and she’s not nice. She’s a vindictive, meddlesome, greedy gold-digger. She hooks her claws into people, and then bleeds them dry of their kindness and their money, then moves on to her next victim.”
“She was in her room ten minutes before the bomb exploded,” Ronan said, sniffing hard. “I don’t know what happened to Ghost. The shrink checked out yesterday.”
Noah saw Fly flinch at the news, then stare at the ruined building. “Mother’s in there?” Fly asked.
“She called down for room service,” Ronan said. “Said she wanted avocados and poached eggs. I sent Stan and Eddy out to the store to get the avocados, since we’d run out. I was saying good-bye to some other guests, in the parking lot, friends of ours who stayed for a few days before heading back home to Canada. That’s the only reason we weren’t in there when it blew.”
“Do you think she knew about the bomb?” Noah asked.
“I don’t know.” Ronan sighed. “Maybe. But more than not, she was just being her usual bitchy self. She was polite to some people, but she was demanding, always asking for that extra something, so we’d be running around after her. She was a diva, for sure.”
Noah watched Fly pale even more, then crumble to the ground in a dead faint. Cursing, he rushed forward and gathered up his mate. “I need to take him home,” he told Kaden and Alfie. “I’m sorry,” he added to John.
The big shifter waved him off. “Don’t sweat it, Noah. Go and take care of your mate. We can handle this.” He pinned Noah with a hard look. “Just watch out for ghosts,” he said. “We know how easily they can sneak into places.”
“How long was Ghost in town?” Kaden suddenly asked, looking as though he’d just had a brainwave.
“Three days,” Eddy replied, wiping his face, staring at the shooting flames that continued to evade the fire crew’s attempts to douse them.
“Fuck,” Kaden said, looking at John. “He’s had more than enough time to get up to mischief.”
“Code Six?” John asked.
“Code One,” Kaden replied grimly. John nodded curtly, and they both sent out a text. Code One was a message which told their task force that there were explosives in town, and to do a thorough search.
“Be careful,” John told Noah, who nodded.
“If I see that motherfucker, I’ll tear him in half,” Noah promised. “No way is he going to hurt anyone else.”
“He’s human,” John reminded Noah.
“He’s a monster who needs taking down,” Noah shot back, then turned and left.
Chapter Seven
Fly awoke slowly, snug and warm, spooning against a fleecy, furnace-like blanket which covered his
back. He was held tightly, his bonds pliant yet strong. He felt a ripple of muscle, flexing against him, and paused in his musings. Muscle? Noah.
“Are you okay?” Noah asked softly. Fly murmured in protest. He didn’t want to wake up just yet, he was too comfy. He loved heat, and Noah certainly had a lot of that. The man reeked of it.
Noah chuckled, squeezing more tightly. “I’m assuming that’s a yes,” he muttered. “You scared the hell out of me, fainting like that.”
Fly tensed, and gasped as he remembered recent events. His mother. The explosion. Reece and Chad dead. His mother. Was she dead? Where was Ghost? Had he really murdered those people? How many more were buried under the rubble? Fly vaguely remembered getting up for a toilet break, sometimes during the night, and hearing Noah relate that none of the businesses would open that day, after the exhausting, terrible events of the night before. He figured that Noah was taking advantage of the unexpected lie-in.
“I brought her here, didn’t I?” he said, distraught as he struggled to free himself from Noah’s tight grasp. “She came here because of me. If I leave, she’ll leave, as well, then there won’t be any more deaths.” He was illogical, his mind whirling around and around, a storm of thoughts inside his head. “Or she’s dead, and it’s over.”
“Baby, Flashpoint are behind this. Ghost was working with them. Daniel was working with them. Your mother, whether she was or wasn’t involved, has paid the price. Or she’s on the run. She could have escaped. We have to wait for the forensics results.”
Fly felt a sob burst through to his larynx, and he cried out. “She’s dead, isn’t she?” he asked, almost afraid to believe it.
“We found a body two hours ago,” Noah said quietly. “They’re trying to identify her through DNA, but there’s not much left. We’re not even sure it is her. She seems far too smart to die like that. Convenient, too, that the shrink mysteriously checked out the day before. A few other people suffered burns and broken bones, but no more serious injuries. Reece, Chad and possibly your mom were the only fatalities.”
