Guardian Bears: Lucas

by Leslie Chase

  Lucas pulled himself up unsteadily, wincing at the pain in his side and gingerly probing it.

  Cracked, not broken, he thought. Not that it matters. There's no time to get medical attention. Emily needs me.

  He looked down at his defeated opponent, considering leaving him there. Then he shook his head. Can't leave someone in the woods unconscious, he thought, frowning. Not if I can carry him out. But so help me, Dominic, if you slow me down, I'm going to dump you and you can fend for yourself.

  Emily sat fretting at her table, waiting for Lucas' call. How long is this going to take?

  A glance at the clock told her she'd only been waiting for half an hour. At best, Lucas would be meeting the Alpha right now. The call might come any minute, or she might have another hour to wait. She groaned at the realization.

  Why is it so much harder to wait now, when it's nearly over, than it was when I was in danger?

  She got up and poured herself another coffee, then looked at the cup. Drinking caffeine is probably not helping, she admitted, setting the cup down again.

  Outside, she heard a sound. She couldn't tell what it was, but something about it drew her attention. Something felt wrong. She tried to tell herself that she'd been jumping at shadows for weeks, that it was nothing, just a cat or something. But the fear felt more real than ever.

  I'd better check, just in case, she thought, heading to the living room window.

  She was half way across the room when the front door crashed open under a booted foot. For once, Emily's reflexes kicked in instantly. She leaped away from the door, running full speed for the bedroom as figures rushed into the living room behind her.

  The window slid open easily, and a small part of her was amused at how used to fleeing through the window she was getting. Someone was close behind her as she flung herself outside, rolling as she hit the floor, and scrambled to her feet.

  A huge man stood in her way, grinning nastily down at her. Before she could change direction, he had her in his grip.

  She struggled wildly, forgetting any kind of skill, and he just laughed, gripping her arms so tight that she cried out in pain. He was strong enough to immobilize her easily, and her struggles were useless.

  "There's an alarm on the door," another voice said from inside the apartment. "Let's get out of here."

  Emily had the terrible feeling that if she let them take her away, her life was over. But she couldn't fight this man – he was nearly as big as Lucas, and as strong. There was only one thing that she could think of to do.

  "Help!" It was galling to be reduced to screaming for help, but she didn't let that stop her, shouting as loud as she could.

  Maybe Tom'll hear me, she thought. He wasn't exactly the man she wanted to rescue her, but as much as she didn't like him, being dragged off by a gang of werewolves would be much worse.

  Before she could shout again, her captor smacked her across the face. The impact was enough to silence her, and she tasted blood.

  "Shut up," the big man growled. His voice was rough, nasty, and held an anger that frightened her. He sounded like he'd been angry for a long time, like it was a habit for him.

  "You're lucky we don't just kill you here," he continued. "Don't make me regret keeping you alive."

  He didn't give her a chance to reply, simply lifting her and slinging her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Without seeming to notice her weight he carried her to one of a group of black cars parked in front of the building. Lights were coming on in some of the houses, and Emily hoped that someone was seeing this, was even now calling the police. But everything was happening so quickly, and before she could think, her captor had flung her into the back of the nearest car and gotten in beside her. His glare froze her in place.

  "How did you find me?" she asked, terrified and trying to play for time. The alarm on the door should have alerted Lucas. He'd be on his way by now. Unless they'd had an ambush waiting for him at the meeting in the woods – but she couldn't let herself think about that.

  He is coming to save me, she told herself. He has to be!

  Her captor laughed, slamming shut the door. The driver didn't wait for instructions, just pulled away and drove off into the night.

  "You can blame yourself for that," he said, grinning at her. The smile had no more warmth than a shark's, and she shrank away from him as far as she could. "You did a pretty good job of vanishing, for an amateur. We didn't have any luck tracking you down until you hired your bear."

  The credit card, she thought, her heart sinking. After all this, hiring Lucas turned out to be a mistake after all.

  No! Don't think like that, she told herself. Without him, she wouldn't have gotten any further.

  "Once we knew you'd hired him, we just had to look for his van – and fortunately, I have friends everywhere, so it didn't take long for someone to spot it parked at a diner. Then we knew where you worked. Should have come to get you myself – Dominic botched that. Still, following the trail you left on your way home wasn't too difficult for a wolf. The hard part was getting rid of your bodyguard, but we've taken care of that for tonight. By the time he gets back here, we'll be long gone."

  That sent a spark of hope through Emily. If the wolves thought he would be alive, that meant that they weren't expecting him to die in the woods. She shuddered with relief.

  "Speaking of that, where to, Victor?" the driver asked.

  "Take us to TannerTech," the big man answered. "Let's get this done with."

  17

  The industrial park was just as Emily remembered it. Almost abandoned, on the edge of town, with the TannerTech offices far from any other business. She wasn't sure what she'd expected – the building swarming with police, with CSI teams trying to make sense of what had happened?

  But the building was quiet, locked up and dark. It would probably stay that way until the rent money Sam had paid upfront ran out. No one would have reported Sam's death, after all, so how would anyone know to investigate it? Emily was the only witness, and a startup company like TannerTech could fold without notice all too easily. The other staff had probably been angry to find the office closed, but most likely they just started looking for other jobs. She felt a stab of guilt, thinking about that. She had been the only one who knew about the murder but she'd said nothing. That had given Sam's killers all the time they needed to cover up their crime.

  The police wouldn't have been able to help, she told herself as firmly as she could. They'd see a man killed by an animal and fetch animal control or something, not start a murder investigation!

  Still, it hurt to think that she'd made things easier for the bastards.

  Victor pulled her out of the car, his fingers digging deep into her arm and making her yelp. His lip twitched at the sound, and she shuddered – he clearly enjoyed hurting her.

  Another man hurried ahead to unlock the doors and Victor pushed her inside into the offices. Someone found the light switches and flipped them on, illuminating the place she'd fled from in terror weeks ago. It seemed so normal now, just a quiet office building, nothing out of the ordinary apart from the fact that they were the only ones there.

  Turning around, she got her first look at her captor in the light. There was no mistaking him – this was the killer, the man she'd seen tear out Sam's throat. He was tall, broad-shouldered, muscular in a way that she'd only ever seen on one other man – and Lucas had never looked so mean. Long loose blond hair framed his face like a mane. Victor's eyes were narrowed angrily, his mouth twisted into what looked like a permanent snarl, and his narrow face held a barely-contained fury that made her want to shrink back, to cower, to run.

  But there wasn't anywhere to run to, and she couldn't see this man responding well to weakness. So she did her best not to show any, straightening up and glaring at the wolves as they spread out through the office space.

  "What do you think you're doing?" she demanded, aware that it sounded faintly ridiculous. Given the choice between ridiculous and scar
ed, though, she chose the former and went with it.

  The wolves just laughed, a low menacing sound that didn't make her feel any better about her chances of coming out of this alive. Lucas, where are you? She focused on her breathing, trying to remain calm. All I need to do is hold on until he gets here!

  "Keep quiet, girl, and you might live through this," one of the wolves answered. The pack watched her from around the office. The large space was mostly empty, a few desks and workstations scattered around it. Sam had always claimed it was space to grow into, though the company had never needed more than a half dozen people. Sam had always talked big, planning for a success he'd never seen. He'd even installed a pool table, talking about some theory that letting people play games at work made them more productive.

  Thinking about him made her glance at Sam's office. Sam had spent so much time there, either looking out at his company – the doors were positioned so that when they were open, he could see the rest of the offices – or with the doors shut, working on his program. Now, the doors hung open, hinges damaged. Clearly no one had tried to repair it since she'd trapped Victor inside. The memory made her shiver, and she realized that they were certainly not planning on letting her leave here after whatever they wanted her for was done. She'd seen too much, and knew their faces – if they'd been planning on letting her live, they'd have been more careful.

  That did mean they wanted something from her, at least. There wasn't any point to this if they didn't. And that meant she had a chance, if she could only stay alive until Lucas reached her.

  Though, looking at the dozen big, tough men in the room with her, she wasn't certain that he'd be able to save her when he did get here. She'd bet on him against any one of the wolves, any two, but there were so many.

  "What do you want from me?" She tried not to let her fear show as she asked the question, but Victor still smirked as though he were reading her mind.

  "Think your bear is coming to the rescue do you? Well, you'll have a long wait – he doesn't know where we are. Even if he can track you down, it'll take longer than you've got. As for what we want, that's easy."

  As he spoke, he took her by the arm and dragged her into Sam's office. She shut her eyes, afraid of what she'd see, but even a quick glance told her that the room had been cleaned. Swallowing her fear, she looked again, and saw no trace of the body she'd feared.

  Of course they got rid of that, she thought. A body would be too much evidence to leave lying around. And she didn't want to think about the smell if it had still been there, weeks after the murder.

  The place was still a mess, furniture thrown everywhere by the fight. One of the wolves picked up Sam's chair and set it in front of the desk as another turned on Sam's computer.

  "All we need is your TannerTech password," he said. "Log in."

  "What? Why? If it's the evidence you're after, I was going to trade you the laptop," she said, confused. The evidence would still be on Sam's computer too, of course, but they already had that.

  "Because your boss stole my money!" Victor's voice rose to a shout and the other wolves flinched back from their alpha. "Tanner, that low life fucking con man, tied up my money in some kind of scheme, and the details are in those files. So open it up!"

  Emily stared at him, eyes wide, fighting down her fear and trying to think. It was almost funny, she realized. If it hadn't been so tragic it would have been.

  "You killed him before he could give it back," she said. "You couldn't wait to kill Sam, and you didn't have his passwords, so you need mine!"

  She almost laughed, but she knew that if she started she wouldn't be able to stop – it was hysteria, not humor, that she felt. Plus, looking at the rage-darkened face of the wolf pack's alpha, she didn't think that laughing would be a safe move. He's already killed one person before getting the password he needs, she reminded herself. I can't count on him being rational about this.

  He stepped forward and grabbed her by the arm, lightning-fast. Dragging her to the chair in front of the computer, he shoved her down into it and bent down to glare into her eyes.

  "All Tanner's finances are on that computer," he said, voice cold as ice. "All of TannerTech's money. Open it up for me. Now."

  Emily leaned backward away from him, fingers reaching for the keyboard almost automatically. Then she stopped herself and shook her head.

  "If I unlock it, you'll just kill me," she told him. "You've got no reason to keep me alive."

  She was proud of the fact that she wasn't crying, but that was all she could hold onto. She was shaking, her voice quavered, and she knew her fear was obvious now. Victor's smile didn't help – it looked more like a predator baring his teeth than anything reassuring. Probably because that's exactly what it is.

  "We got no reason to kill you," he said. His voice was an angry whisper, chilling Emily even further. "Unlock the laptop. I get what I want, I erase the evidence, and then you can go free. No one would believe you anyway, so why should we care what the fuck happens to you? I'll even throw in ten grand for your trouble. Can't say fairer than that."

  Emily didn't believe him for a moment. It was the offer of money that made her certain he was lying – she might have taken him at his word that he'd let her go if she cooperated. It would have been a desperate long shot, but she might have grabbed hold of the idea and risked it.

  But she couldn't see this man giving away money so easily, not when he could get what he wanted with threats and force. That had to be a lie. Of course, that left the unpleasant realization that there was nothing stopping Victor from going on to the threats and force if she said no.

  Play for time, Emily, she told herself. Lucas will come for you. He has to.

  "I don't know," she stammered. If she couldn't hide her fear, she could play it up and buy some time. "I, I don't know what to do."

  Victor snarled wordlessly and for a second she thought he was going to hit her. Then he shook his head and stood, turning away from her. "You're gonna do what I told you," he said, confident and angry. "Do that, walk out of here with ten thousand dollars. Or you can say no, and we'll convince you to go along with us anyway."

  The rest of the pack growled, and the noise sent a flash of fear through her. It was almost impossible to resist the impulse to comply, to give them what they wanted. Something about the sound they made spoke directly to her hindbrain and the ancient ancestral memories of being hunted through the tall grasses by animals like this.

  Her fingers flew to the keyboard, and it took an effort of will to type the wrong words. A harsh sound from the speakers told everyone that she'd mistyped, and Victor's hand snapped out, faster than she'd have believed such a big man could move, to slap her across the cheek.

  "I'm sorry!" She heard her voice tremble, and this time she didn't try to stop it. They already knew she was afraid – maybe she could use that to play for time. "I thought that was it, please, I'll get it right!"

  Another attempt and another flashing notification on the screen along with that harsh buzz. Victor glared down at her, his hands flexing, and she tensed for another blow.

  It didn't come. Instead, the big man stepped back and glowered around the room, looking for something else to vent his rage on. Probably he doesn't think that he could stop, if he started hitting me again.

  The rest of the wolves flinched back as his gaze raked across them, none of them willing to meet his eyes. For all that they were big, strong men, none of them were as tough looking as their Alpha, and certainly none of them had the cruel, crazed look in their eyes. Emily tried to stay still, to not draw attention to herself, and hoped that this would drag out.

  The pause didn't last long, though. Victor threw up his hands and grabbed one of the other wolves, shoving him in Emily's direction.

  "Tommy, you get her to open up the PC, I don't care how you do it. Just get it done." With that, he stalked off. Tommy, the shifter he'd grabbed, looked almost as relieved as Emily felt to see him leave, but his face was set and stern as h
e turned to her.

  "You heard the Alpha," he snarled. "I don't want to have to hurt you, so get it done."

  "I can't!" Emily tried to sound as scared and helpless as she could. It wasn't difficult. "I can't remember, oh god, I'm sorry!"

  She wasn't sure if anyone would believe that – but she was under a lot of stress and it didn't sound unreasonable to her. And crucially, it wasn't the kind of problem that could be solved by hitting her.

  Tommy looked down at her, confused and unhappy, then sighed. It wasn't a happy sigh, and though she thought the look on his face was meant to be reassuring it failed miserably. "Look, you heard him. Let us have what's on here, and you can go free. No more problems, no looking over your shoulder. The Alpha just wants our money back, so take a deep breath and remember."

  He didn't sound like he believed that any more than she did. But at least he was giving her a chance to take things slow, and that was what she needed. Doing as he asked, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. She couldn't help remembering – not the password, but the look on Sam Tanner's face as the wolf's jaws closed on his arm.

  She didn't want to share his fate, but that didn't mean she was going to help out. Bad boss and shady businessman he may have been, he still didn’t deserve to be murdered and his killers didn't deserve her help. Another 'mistaken' password. Tommy made an angry sound, and suddenly she felt his hand on her chin.

  Eyes opening, she looked up into his cold, angry gaze. There was no patience there, but there was a hint of fear hiding behind his rage.

  "Stop stalling," he hissed. "This isn't a game, and now it's my neck on the line with yours. So here's the deal. I'm going to give you ten more chances to get it right, and each time you fuck it up, I'm going to break one of your fingers. Let's see if that improves your memory!"