Damon clapped Doyle on the shoulder and leaned in, talking in words too low for any of us to hear, then he cut around the young man he’d raised since he was a boy. Doyle stepped inside and closed the door. He looked at me first, and I got the odd little head-bow he would have given somebody like Dair. They’d been doing to me more and more lately. I had a feeling it had something to do with my relationship with Damon.
I didn’t like it, but what was I going to do? Tell them to stop nodding at me?
I hated shifter politics.
“This is the cub you’ve been…training?” The question came from the man who stood closest to the woman. I didn’t know him. I had seen him once or twice and I thought I heard it mentioned that he was one of Dair’s troubleshooters, but that was it.
The tone he’d used was puzzling, to say the least. Although polite, there was an undertone of disbelief and I had a feeling I didn’t like what he could be implying.
Or maybe I’m just sensitive.
“He is.” Glancing over at Doyle, I allowed a small smile as I added, “His wet nurses tell me he’s almost ready to wean.”
Doyle snorted and moved over to one of the low chairs, folding his long body down onto it with more grace than I’d manage even if I lived another fifty years. Once they got out of that awful spike phase where they went from gawky teen to full adult, most of them tended to become poetry in motion.
He reached for the bowl of nuts, scooping up a handful.
“Is this going to take long? A young cub like me needs his rest.” He tossed the nuts into his mouth, eyes roaming from one wolf to the other, gaze lingering on the young blonde who so far had remained silent.
The man took a step forward, leaving the woman’s side. But not before he gave her a long, hard look. “Behave.”
With an expression of wide-eyed innocence, she pressed a hand to her heart. “Whatever do you think I plan to do?”
He didn’t bother answering.
The slim blonde with him rose and placed herself at the woman’s.
I noticed something then—she held a gun.
A wolf carrying a weapon.
And it was pointed at another shapeshifter. Wow.
This was turning out to be an odd meeting.
“I’m Coleridge Miller. You can call me Miller.” He stepped in my direction, shifting subtly so that he could face me and his prisoner.
Prisoner—it hit me then that was what this was. She might not be cuffed or trussed up like a pig, but they were her guards and jailers.
He reached into his suit coat and withdrew a fat envelope and then a narrower one. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to be excited or call for Scott and have them escorted out, post haste.
That fat envelope would be cash.
I knew how Dair worked.
The other one would be a contract.
He held them out.
I only took the contract. “You hold onto the other one for a few minutes.” Then I went around behind the desk and sat. The moment I did, Doyle uncoiled from his seat and took position at the right side. I don’t know if he’d picked up on the same thing I had, or if he was just reading my uneasiness.
I sliced the envelope open and began to read.
Miller had returned to his position, watching over the tall, svelte wolf.
The letter introduced her as Babs Gaffrey—aka Babs Gentry aka Barbara Gaddy…and about five more akas. All a variation of Barbara and a last name starting with a G. “So what do you like to be called?” I asked without looking up. “Barbara? Babs? Miss G?”
“You may call me Madam, girl.” The cool, haughty tone had me looking up.
I met her eyes and snorted. “Yeah…not going to happen, Babs.”
Her face showed no sign of emotion.
Made sense.
Dair had already explained in the letter that she was a sociopath. He’d explained several other things as well and I’d like to walk out of this room, get in my car, drive the thirty-some odd minutes it took to get to the Wolf Den from here and get in his face and tell him he was fucking crazy.
Instead, I went back to reading.
Then I read it a second time, a third.
Finally, I folded it back up and returned it to the envelope. Meeting Miller’s eyes, I asked, “Who is the wolf they have?”
⸸
“I don’t like this.” I’d been talking to Doyle.
But it was Elizabeth, the young wolf who responded. “Me neither. I already texted the Alpha and told him something wasn’t right about it.”
The agreed meeting place to swap Babs for the young doctor from Dair’s pack had been changed, and so had the time.
I’d accepted the job for two reasons—I was determined to get the woman. I also knew what it was like to be a prisoner.
But now the meeting place had been changed, the time…?
The one thing about the meet that had reassured me was that it had been on human turf. But last night, the place had caught on fire.
The location had been ideal. Not just because of the humans, but because it had been in a populated area.
The new address wasn’t near anywhere remotely populated. It looked like a dilapidated old fishing shack, but I could smell food, a recent fire. If I was smelling that, then the shifters were probably catching signs indicating the presence of people.
From inside the SUV, we watched the place.
There were two cars. We’d lowered our windows a crack, but we couldn’t hear anything.
“Let me out,” Babs said with a dramatic sigh. “All this…” She waved a hand toward the cabin. “This… waiting. I want to go home. I haven’t had a proper bath or a pedicure in nearly a week and the food that idiot had brought to me was an insult.”
“What did you want, pheasant under glass?” I didn’t bother to look at her.
“Your rudeness will bring you trouble, girl. Those weak Alphas in your city may allow it…but we won’t.” Her voice was closer now.
Hearing the shifting noises behind me, a rustle, then the sound of flesh on flesh, I flipped down the visor and used the mirror to watch as Doyle flipped, and somehow pinned her in the car.
“Try to touch her again and I’ll rip the arm off next—then I’ll feed it to you.”
“Ohhh…aggressive, aren’t you?” Babs practically purred for him. “I like it.”
“You won’t.”
“Let her go, Doyle.” I waited for him to meet my eyes in the mirror. “If she keeps it up, we’ll shut her up. I need to think.”
His mouth twisted, but he let her go.
The two wolves had said nothing during the exchange, but now, as Babs settled back into the seat, Elizabeth said, “We need to decide what we’re going to do.”
“We get out.” Sighing, I reached for the car door. “We see what they do. The escort Dair sent—how far back are they?”
Elizabeth’s mouth went tight. “Outside the city. I advised them of the change and they circled around—actually closer to our position now, but fifteen minutes away. And unless things get really screwy, they can’t come in unless we want to risk this thing turning into an interpack dispute.”
“I think the alpha here made the first move there.”
Elizabeth glanced at me.
“That fire…seemed awful handy, didn’t it?” I slid out, adjusted my vest so that the gun I’d slid into a shoulder holster was hidden.
⸸
Things did indeed get really screwy. Almost right off the bat, too.
It started when Babs went walking past us in a hip-swinging stride.
When I told her to stop, she didn’t.
Two men appeared out of the cabin.
I couldn’t see the young doctor Dair had described and I told Babs to stop again.
That, as far as I was concerned, justified everything I did, including the knife I pulled from the sheath in my boot. One of the men shouted at Babs and she glanced back, clearly amused.
The amusement faded as she saw
my hand going back.
But she wasn’t fast enough.
She’d spent too much time insulting me and not enough wondering why I’d been asked to do this job at all.
The knife buried itself in her chest.
It wasn’t silver and it wouldn’t kill her.
But she stumbled, then fell, as the potent drug that coated the blade hit her bloodstream. It was called Night and that’s because it put shifters out like a light. Elizabeth and Miller hesitated, but Doyle and I were already moving toward her.
They reacted a split second later, moving with Doyle to form a wall in front of me as I grabbed Babs. She was still fighting the drug off, looking around with dazed eyes. But she was sliding closer and closer to unconsciousness. Hauling her up, I started to back toward the SUV. “Maybe if you’d listened just a little bit,” I said.
“Stupid…bith…bitch. Gonna kill…u…”
Her words were slurred, like she’d gone on a three week bender and was still trying to find her way back. Gritting my teeth, I shifted my weight and supported her with one arm while I wrenched the back door open. I dumped her inside and she came up, flailing, determined.
A fist came flying my way.
I dodged.
But when she lurched forward, determined to stand—that was harder.
She smacked her head right into my nose.
Pain exploded and cartilage crunched.
“That’s enough.” Blinking back tears and relying on instinct more than anything else, I balled up a fist and slammed it into the side of her head. She dropped.
Bleeding all over her, I heaved her legs into the SUV and turned.
There was a living, breathing wall of wolves facing the three shifters who’d stood behind to watch my back.
“Dair, sometimes I hate you.”
How to handle…
Slowly, I pulled my phone from my pocket. As I dialed, I fished a handkerchief out with my free hand and pressed it to my nose.
Damon answered.
“Hold on,” I said, not giving him a chance to even say hello. I dialed another number, then linked the calls. “I don’t have a lot of time. Curious, Dair, this pack in Mississippi, how big is it?”
Dair cautiously replied, “Five hundred strong.”
“Okay. I’m looking at about fifty of them right now.”
“How much trouble are you in, Kit?” Damon demanded.
“Not sure yet. Either of you know where their den is?”
They both responded—yes.
“I have four units of ten enforcers within thirty minutes of that den, from every direction,” Dair added.
“Maybe I don’t entirely hate you.” Blowing out a breath, I picked up the pace, focusing my attention on the one who felt the strongest—if he wasn’t the alpha, then he was one of his right-hand men. I came to a stop between Doyle and Miller, lowering the phone, but placing it on speaker.
“I thought Alisdair MacDonald had an agreement worked out with the alpha here. A group of no more than ten would meet with us and we would make a trade. No harm, no foul.”
The man reached up, stroking his goatee with his index finger. “He lost any chance when he grabbed Babs while she was on a shopping trip in Ft. Lauderdale. It’s my rules now.”
“You asked for the services of one of his people, made a deal. Then you wouldn’t let her leave.” I held his gaze, despite the power now leaking from him. Oh, yeah. This guy was the alpha. And an asshole. “You set the playing field.”
“Kid, you have no idea the kind of trouble you’re messing with.” He tipped his head back, sniffed the air—me. “You know what? I’ll be nice. You’re not a wolf.” His eyes moved to Doyle. “Or a mangy cat. You can go. Haul Babs out and go. We’ll let you live. But these three…they knew what they were getting into.”
“Funny…I’d think you would, too. You do know where your territory is located, right?”
His lids flickered. “Yes…in my territory. If MacDonald was so concerned with his fucking doctor, he should have sent more than one guard to stay with her.” A cold smile twisted his lips. “Too bad he didn’t.”
“You killed Joshua, then,” Elizabeth said softly.
“Nah…not me.” The alpha gestured to the big man standing next to him. “He did. And he had fun with it.”
“You know, the country is divided into regions,” I said, cutting him off before he go into detail—and he would. Whoever Joshua had been, he’d meant something to the young woman at my side. “Each region has a number of packs and clans. There is one who has a voice for all of them. It’s that annoying governing thing—he’s sort of like your senator, or your governor. Or maybe even your king.”
The alpha’s lip curled. “Dair might have the biggest pack in the region, but he sure as hell ain’t my alpha. One on one, I’d eat him alive.”
“Then get ready,” a voice said from the phone.
Damon.
The alpha in front of me stiffened minutely.
Somewhere in the distance, I heard the roar of engines, too.
I couldn’t be the only one—my hearing was exceptional, but shifters heard far better. Yet the alpha seemed more interested in the voice. He stared hard at me—actually, at my leg.
I still hadn’t lifted the phone. Now, I did, holding it between us.
“Damon, I assume you received our position earlier?” I said calmly.
“Yes. I take it I’m talking to…Vane Sanders.” He snorted, the disdain coming through clear even over the phone line. “Hello, Vane. I hadn’t had time to make my way all the way through the northern part of the region. Clearly a mistake on my part.”
“Who is this?” Vane stared at the phone like it was a snake that was going to bite him.
“You know who it is,” Damon said, his voice silken. “Want to know how I know? Dair regularly had issues collecting his tithes from you when Annette was in charge. That changed…oh, say about a year ago. Coincided, oddly enough, with her death.”
“Money was tight. We shouldn’t have to starve ourselves to pay a fucker who is already rich.”
“Money ain’t so tight that you can’t afford to send that psycho bitch Barbara S. Gerome on shopping sprees in Ft. Lauderdale, Milan, Paris…ain’t so tight you can’t afford to buy yourself a big house and a sweet boat you take out on the Gulf every weekend. Seems like you squeeze your pack pretty hard, maybe harder than you’re supposed to, even.”
Vane’s gaze flew to mine, then he looked at the people with him. “Go get the fucking girl, bring her out. Now.”
“But…” one of the men looked at us, then at him. “She…we’ve still got a couple of women who need help with the babies and all.”
“Get her!”
He drew in a deep breath and looked back at me, a charming smile in place. “This has been a misunderstanding. I can have my men retrieve Babs. We’re bringing the doc out. It’s all good.”
“No.” Damon’s voice came through loud and clear. “It’s not all good. You issued a challenge to Dair. You’re going to follow through, you chicken shit coward.”
The rush of the engines was louder now.
Blinking at the wind that blew my hair into my eyes, I backed away a bit as three ground-to-air vehicles came down.
The noise ended abruptly as the engines were cut and doors lifted.
Each vehicle held seven people and in no time, twenty-one shifters stood with us.
Vane’s people no longer looked so cocky.
And Vane had begun to slowly back up.
Most of the crew were enforcers from the wolf pack, but I recognized two of them—Scott and Chang.
Apparently Dair had been prepared for shit to hit the fan and he’d reached out to Damon. Or maybe Damon had figured out what the job was and he’d demanded Dair put his two best on the team.
As I caught sight of those two cat shifters, I whistled under my breath and looked back at Vane. “Wow. You are in such deep shit.”
“It’s all good,” he
said again, shaking his head. “We just let this go and…”
“You’re about to meet a man by the name of Chang. You’re going to go with him,” Damon said, interrupting him, his words coming out like cold, icy blades. “If you decide to refuse, and I’m kind of hoping you do, he’s just going to kill you were you stand. And there’s not one person in that pathetic pack you have who can stop him.”
Chang and Scott had drawn even with me now. Chang’s dark eyes looked me up, then down and he gave a short nod before moving on to Vane.
“Kit,” Dair said politely. “Thank you for calling.”
“Yeah. Whatever.” I disconnected and looked back at the car. Babs…or Barbara Gerome was still in there, sleeping it off. “Can somebody get her out of the car? I want the doctor riding with me.”
Chapter Three
I got back home way, way, way after midnight and I was tired, cranky and pissed off at everything and everybody in general.
Elizabeth, apparently, had been taught the basics in first-aid and she, along with the doctor’s help, had checked out Dr. Meredith Cord’s injuries which were far worse than they should have been considering she was a shapeshifter. Fluids were given. I’d seen an IV bag hanging from the hook that was designed to hold clothes—at least for humans. We stopped twice for food.
Then, somewhere along the way, Cord had fallen asleep. She’d woken screaming—twice. Elizabeth had given the doctor some Night. I’d told myself not to lose it when I heard them talking about it after the fact, although it was hard. Night had been developed, initially, to help with injured wolves. Why not use it now?
Now that she was asleep, though, I wanted to know one thing.
“Did Dair suspect it might go bad like this?”
Miller ignored me.
I looked at Elizabeth.
She sighed.
Then she looked at me and shrugged, the gesture oddly rueful. “We needed a neutral party, Kit.” Eyes returning to the road, she stared straight ahead. “Somebody to go in and start talks. It couldn’t be a wolf—the last time we tried that, we lost one of our best. It couldn’t be a cat, for the same reason.”
Haunted Blade (Colbana Files Book 6) Page 3
