“There’s the exit.”
At his words, she opened her eyes. “Too fast,” she snapped, as they blasted past the sign and left the highway.
“Seventy-five.” Satisfaction sounded in Carson’s voice. “One curve, then, straight shot.”
She sat up. They were on the access road. Trees blocked the highway from view.
“Are they gone?”
“Not yet.” Violence still sounded in his voice. “There.” Pointing to a dirt road that wound into the trees, he killed the headlights and slowed. Pulling into a thicket, he parked.
Then they waited, the sound of their mingled breathing harsh and loud in the quiet interior.
A moment later a vehicle sped past, too quickly in the darkness for Brenna to make out its type.
“Hummer,” Carson said, as if he’d read her mind. “Dark colored—black, brown or blue. Whoever they are, they’ve got money.”
Swallowing, she nodded. Still her heart pounded in her chest. She willed it to slow.
“We need to go,” she said.
“In a minute.” Leaning against his door, Carson spread his arm comfortably along the back of the seat. “Why don’t you start talking? Are these the same people who shot at us?”
“I don’t know.”
“Enough lies.” His tone lined with steel, he sat up and dropped his arm.
When she only stared silently at him, he swore again, his mouth twisting. With a savage flick of his wrist, he started the ignition. Once out of their hiding place, he pulled back onto the highway, continuing north.
Brenna watched the speedometer climb to eighty again, unable to resist a quick glance behind them at the now-deserted highway.
“No headlights,” Carson confirmed. “Tell me the truth. Are you working with them?”
“Working with—” She shook her head. “Of course not. I don’t believe in random violence.”
He regarded her strangely. “Your brother does.”
“My brother’s in trouble,” she muttered. “I don’t know how or why, but he is.”
His short bark of laughter contained no humor. “In trouble? Of course he is. Besides having the DEA, ATF and FBI after him, he has to worry about rival gangs. It’s only a matter of time until one of us finds him. I wouldn’t want to be in your brother’s shoes right now.”
There was something in his voice. Pain. Bitterness. Rage.
“It’s more than that with you,” she said, keeping her eyes on his shadowed profile.
At that his head snapped up, his gaze icy again. “What do you mean?”
“You’re too angry. With you, it’s personal.”
She thought he might deny it, even as the fury that momentarily darkened his eyes betrayed him. But after a moment of chilly silence, he gave her a cold smile and nodded.
“My wife and daughter are dead because of Hades’ Claws.” He might have been discussing the weather, so remote was his voice. “They thought they’d killed me, too.”
His unspoken anguish sliced through her, sharper than any knife. “Were you shot?”
“In the back. I nearly died. Now I want the ones who killed my family.”
She swallowed. “Surely you don’t think Alex was part of that.”
“Yeah, actually, I do.”
She couldn’t believe it. There were a hundred reasons why Alex couldn’t be the killer he sought, but she couldn’t give him any of them.
“Now.” With one hand on the steering wheel, he grasped her chin with the other. “I want the truth. Are those goons who shot at us and chased us Hades’ Claws?”
Furious, Brenna tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her. “How would I know? If Alex is, as you say, involved with this gang, he wouldn’t let them endanger me.”
His expression turned dark. “They want me dead. They should have killed me when they had the chance. Now they’ll have to wait until I’m done.”
“Wait until—” She stared at him. “Are you saying you want to die?”
“Not until I find the people who destroyed my life.”
He hadn’t said no. What kind of man…? But she knew. He hurt. Like a wounded animal, Carson would seek death rather than continue to endure horrific pain.
Shaken, she looked away. There was no way she could fathom such grief.
“If you’re in on this, now’s your chance to come clean. I can get you government protection if you testify.”
“I’m not in on anything. Alex would never…” She didn’t bother to finish.
“I’ll shut up about it for now,” Carson finally said. “But if you’re not with them, you’re in danger. Hades’ Claws mean business.”
This time she smiled. “I can take care of myself.”
“Sure you can.” His mocking tone belied his words. “If you really are Alex’s sister, you’d be real good at looking out for number one.”
Every time he spoke her brother’s name, she could taste the hostility.
“I am his sister,” she said. “And if you knew him at all, you would understand why I can’t believe my brother killed your family.” The words stuck to her tongue. She tried again. “I don’t understand how you can think he did.”
He spoke a vile word under his breath. In the dim light, his features appeared savage, so like one of her people at the moment of change that she stared.
“Understand this, then. I was there. I was shot, but I saw Alex. He had a gun.”
Chapter 2
Stunned, Brenna swallowed. “Alex couldn’t,” she stammered, her words trailing off at the cynical certainty she read on his face.
“The killing was a test to determine Alex’s loyalty. They said he passed with flying colors.”
A sound escaped her, something between a plea and a moan. She had read about this case. “The newspapers said ‘an unnamed biker.’”
“Innocent until proven guilty. How could you not know? You’re his sister.” He made the simple sentence sound like a curse. “Or so you claim.”
He thought her brother was a murderer. Worse, he believed she knew and was lying through her teeth. Her throat felt tight, closed in. She couldn’t seem to get enough air. She forced herself to breathe deeply. To swallow then lift her head and look directly at Carson Turner, unflinching. Alex couldn’t have done what this man claimed.
“There has to be some other explanation,” she said. “You were shot. In pain. Maybe you saw wrong. Alex isn’t a murderer.”
Though in effect she’d just called him a liar, to his credit he didn’t threaten or sneer. He didn’t open the door and shove her out with a wave and a quick hasta la vista, baby. No, Carson did none of those things. He merely continued to regard her much like a wolf watches a rabbit caught in a snare, waiting for her to prove her statement.
But she couldn’t, not in words he would believe. She hadn’t been there; she hadn’t seen her brother with a smoking gun. Carson had. Or thought he had.
“What kind of trouble are you in?” Carson asked, breaking into her chaotic thoughts.
Still silent, she shook her head, raising her hands, palms up, in a gesture meant to convey ignorance.
His mouth twisted. “If you want me to help you, you’re gonna have to tell me.”
Startled, she met his gaze. “Help me? Why would you do that?”
“Because whoever you are, I’m stuck with you right now.” His sour tone left no doubt as to his feelings about the situation. “If you really are Alex’s sister, having you with me might help me get his attention. If you’re not…” he shrugged “…you still seem to care deeply for him. Either way, your being with me can’t hurt.”
His eyes narrowed. “If you know something about the shooting or those guys in the Hummer, you’d better tell me now. Traveling with me is dangerous. You’re putting your own life in danger.”
“No,” she told him. “I don’t know anything.” In more ways than one, she thought. Whatever Alex had gotten himself involved in, dangerous didn’t seem to begin to describe the si
tuation.
“Okay. I consider you warned.” He sounded oddly agreeable—pleasant, even—making her wonder if he used this tone on a daily basis to trick suspects under interrogation into admitting guilt.
“You really think I’m a criminal.” She spoke her thoughts out loud.
“The men in the Hummer weren’t with law enforcement.” He spoke as though he had no doubt. “Neither was the shooter.”
She shook her head. “Hades’ Claws?”
He snorted. “You tell me.”
“Hey, I don’t even know them.” She could tell from Carson’s skeptical expression that he didn’t believe her. “Seriously, I never heard of Hades’ Claws until you mentioned them.”
“How long have you been looking for your brother?”
She narrowed her eyes. “A few months. I haven’t heard from him for six. Why?”
“Surely you read the papers.”
“Some.” She gave a halfhearted shrug. “But I don’t remember seeing anything about them.”
He laughed then, lightening the grim atmosphere in the Tahoe. “Are you from around here?”
“No. Upstate. I came down here looking for my brother. Why?”
“Because they make the paper here all the time. Maybe your local paper isn’t interested.”
“So they aren’t that bad?” Keeping her expression haughty, she resisted the urge to chew on her fingernail. This was a habit she’d broken in her teens, right after she’d passed the Pack tests that made her a full-fledged huntress. Odd that a habit she despised would try to resurface now.
“Oh, they’re bad, all right. Unless you don’t count murder, smuggling—” he ticked the words off on his fingers “—illegal weapons, drugs and robbery as wrong.”
“And they want to kill you,” she said softly.
“Oh yeah. And even if you can’t get a grip on the idea that your brother is one of them, while you’re with me you’re a target, too.”
“I’m not worried.” She ran her fingers through the back of her long hair, combing it out from force of habit. “As I’ve said, I can take care of myself.”
“So you claim.” He lifted one shoulder in a quick shrug. “Either way, I have no intention of letting you out of my sight. So don’t even think about taking off.”
“The thought never crossed my mind,” she drawled.
Instead of replying, he accelerated. At her questioning look, he flipped his fingers at the dark road ahead of them. “We need to get off the interstate.”
“Do you think they’ll catch us?”
One corner of his mouth twisted. “Eventually. For a while they’ll keep going down that access road, thinking we’re just ahead of them. But once they realize we pulled off somewhere…” As he spoke, he glanced in the rearview mirror.
His profile seemed hard and angry. No doubt he still believed she’d lied about her connection to the biker gang.
Biker gang. Alex a murderer. Hard to even think of using the words together in a sentence. Never mind DEA and FBI. Another shiver went down her spine.
“I’m not a member of Hades’ Claws.” Her words came out in a furious, staccato burst.
“A rival gang?”
“Of course not. No.”
“You don’t sound too certain. What about this ‘pack’ you mentioned?”
Alarm clogged her throat. He’d caught her accidental slip. “It’s a nickname, an inside joke among my relatives,” she said. “It’s what we call ourselves. No gang, just family. You know how family can be.”
“Yeah. I had a family once.” The grim savagery in his voice made her catch her breath.
“How long ago?” she asked softly. “How long ago did it happen?”
He shook his head, a muscle working in his jaw. With a white-knuckle grip, he held on to the steering wheel. “It’s been eighteen months.”
Eighteen months. Last year, early spring. Alex had called her, told her he’d taken a new job, one that would let him move from the city back to the Catskills. Still only a few hours away, he’d said, knowing she missed him. After they’d graduated from college, he’d left her once before to go alone on an extended winter tour of the northern cities. Seattle, Vancouver, Boise, Helena, Bismark. Then east to check out Phillie and Boston and New York. His absence had made her sad, then furious, wishing she’d gone with him.
When he’d finally returned to the small town of Leaning Forest, he’d told wonderful stories. Not of blood or murder or mayhem, but of ordinary, city-human things. Rush hour and crowded subways, poodles with painted toenails and corner hot-pretzel vendors.
They’d laughed together over his tales. In her quiet life as the town librarian, she’d secretly envied him the adventure, the experience, never dreaming that one day she would venture forth from her comfortable existence in search of him. Never expecting him to go missing, be accused of murder. How peaceful her old life seemed now.
“Eighteen months,” she repeated. “And you’ve looked for revenge ever since?”
“I’ve been looking for your brother,” he said. “As soon as I got out of the hospital, I started searching. Alex went underground. Obviously, he doesn’t want me to find him.”
She let that one go, focusing on the word hospital. He’d said he’d nearly been killed. “Did it take you a long time to recover?”
He gave a curt nod.
Less than two years. In her own life, a lot had happened in that time. She’d lost a fiancé, misplaced her brother. Meanwhile, this man’s entire family had been ripped away, brutally murdered in circumstances that made her brother look guilty.
“I’m sorry.” She knew her words were inadequate, but she meant them nonetheless.
In response, Carson accelerated again.
Brenna got the message and closed her mouth. The digital clock on the dashboard showed 1:30 a.m. Late for humans, but prime hunting time for those of her kind. Glancing at the shadowy woods as they flashed past, she wondered if any of her people roamed there. Snow had begun to fall, the dainty white flakes becoming thick, heavy ones the farther north they traveled. Soon Carson slowed the vehicle to a crawl, his headlights reaching only a few feet ahead of them on the snow-covered road.
A sign proclaimed they were on the outskirts of Albany, the state capital.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“I got a lead that some of the gang is holed up in Hawk’s Falls, near the Vermont border.”
Mostly wilderness. Her kind of place. She allowed herself a small smile. As a huntress, her tracking skills were unparalleled. If Alex hid anywhere in a forest, she would find him.
“How long before we get there?”
He shook his head in the clumsy manner of a wolf cub shaking off snow. “We won’t get there tonight,” he said, his deep voice sounding gravelly. “It’s late, and the storm’s getting worse. I need some sleep.”
She sat up. “I’m not tired. I’ll drive.”
He drummed on the steering wheel. “I don’t think so.”
“I want to find him as much as you do,” she reminded him. “You sleep, I’ll get us there. It’s not too far.”
“We’re pulling off at the next town. We’ll take a motel room for the night.”
“But—”
“We have to stop sometime.”
“I’ll stop when I find my brother.”
He shook his head again. “We’ll start fresh in the morning.”
“If we’re not snowed in.”
“I’ve got chains.” He shrugged. “And there’s always a plow.”
She tried not to grind her teeth. “Look, I really think—”
“Enough.” His tone was sharp enough to cut a coyote off in mid-howl. “This is not a democracy. We’re stopping and getting some rest. End of subject.”
Brenna glared. “Fine. You get a room. I’ll stay in your vehicle.”
“Right.” He snorted. “It’s ten below and snowing, and you want to stay here?”
Put that way, her words did soun
d…unusual.
“I don’t want to waste money on a motel room. I can rest here. This is comfortable enough for me.”
“Money?” He gave her a long look. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll pay. We’re sharing a room, anyway.”
At her sputter of protest, he flashed her a bleak, tight-lipped smile. “Look, I’m not going to attack you. I don’t want sex with the sister of my family’s killer. I’ll make sure we have two beds.”
Safe. If only he knew. She suppressed the desire to growl. “I’m not worried.”
“Of course not.” His tone mocked her. “But like I said, until we find Alex, I’m not letting you out of my sight.”
“I don’t want to be that close to you.”
“Tough.”
She took a closer look at the intense man beside her.
“Fine,” she conceded. “I want to keep an eye on you as badly as you do me.”
“Then it’s settled.” In silence he drove on, windshield wipers slapping ineffectively against the blinding snow. He handled the vehicle with the ease of long familiarity. In the blizzard, the streetlights shone like dim halos, the occasional car or semi looming up huge, then lumbering away, like brief scenes from a surreal, homemade movie.
An exit sign indicated available lodging. They left the freeway, turning right and fishtailing on the snowy road.
“Slow down,” she said.
Instead of commenting, he pointed. “There.” Clustered together were several older motels. A red neon sign at the first one indicated a vacancy.
Carson pulled into the snow-covered lot, parking around back, out of sight of the brightly lit office. With the snow coming down fast and furious, the place looked cozy, inviting, though Brenna knew in harsh sunlight the weather-beaten exterior would seem tired and worn.
With an innate caution that came as naturally as breathing, she took stock of her surroundings. The frame building appeared badly maintained, its fading green paint peeling. A few pine trees, bent and sickly, grew near the office. The weight of the snow on their branches made them seem about to topple.
Despite the storm, or perhaps because of it, the parking lot contained five or six other vehicles, all older, all rapidly disappearing under white shrouds of snow. From the iron bars on the office windows, she judged this would not be a safe place for a woman to wander at night, at least a human woman unable to change.
The Wolf Princess: The Wolf PrincessOne Eye Open (The Pack) Page 25
