by E A Price
Reluctantly, he let go of Barry. Slowly his body shifted back to human.
Gerry grabbed the blanket from the paramedic and pushed him out the way. Vaguely he was aware of Gunner arresting Barry, but he only had eyes for his mate.
Through blood and tears, she smiled at him. She’d never looked more beautiful to him.
He wrapped her in the blanket and kissed her forehead. He didn’t know what to say so he just held her, and she held him, eventually they both stopped shaking.
Chapter Twenty-Six
“I don’t need to be here,” complained Jessie petulantly.
“You’re injured,” growled Gerry.
“I’m just a little bruised.”
“You were bleeding.”
“I had a nose bleed, but look it stopped.” She pointed at her nose and Gerry kissed it.
“You will stay in the hospital until I say you can leave.”
The doctor cleared his throat in objection but quailed and finally fled as Gerry glared at him.
Juliet scowled at them. “Yes, well, as much as I’m enjoying watching you two work your way up to screwing, do you care to tell me why Barry was trying to kill you?”
Gerry tightened his arm around her shoulder and Jessie snuggled into his embrace. She was still a little jumpy, and she couldn’t deny the fact that she was aching all over, but keeping Gerry near was for his sake more than hers. It’d probably be the same for her if it were the other way around. He was more afraid of anything happening to her than himself and vice versa.
He was still het up from what happened. He really had wanted to kill Barry. She saw it his eyes. Her inner animal wanted to let him, too, but she stopped him. She preferred for Barry to go to prison for what he did. He deserved a long punishment for ever threatening to hurt Gerry. Plus all the stuff he did to her was awful, too.
The nurse had tried to tell Gerry that he shouldn’t be in bed with her, but neither of them had put up with that.
“Barry said it was all about vengeance. He was trying to blame Gerry for losing his job and his wife – he just went nuts. It was weird.”
“Even weirder is the fact that Barry was stopped for speeding an hour ago,” said Juliet.
Gerry narrowed his eyes. “But I thought we had him in a holding cell. You didn’t let him go did you?” he roared. Jessie patted his chest and made shushing noises.
“No, and Barry’s not in a holding cell. He’s down in the medical bay under heavy guard. The doctor thinks his spine may never recover from what you did. Anyway, his doppelganger was stopped by the LLPD, and he also claimed his name is Barry Sayles, plus he has Barry’s ID. It’s not Barry, though. Cutter checked him out, and he smells human. He’s good enough to fool the LLPD though. They’d have already let him go if they didn’t know we’d already arrested him.” She looked at Jessie, “your e-mail went to half of Los Lobos you know.”
“I know. Half of my hometown got it, too. My parents freaked out. Took me ten minutes to calm them down over the phone. They’re already on their way here now.”
“Anyway, because LLPD knew what happened, they arrested him on the spot for kidnapping thinking he was the real Barry. The guy started freaking out and changed his mind and said his name was really Clint Rogers. Still, Gunner sent Cutter down there to pick him up, just in case. He is in one of our holding cells.”
“Perfect alibi,” muttered Gerry.
“What?”
“Barry had the perfect alibi for the time of the…” His face tightened, and a low, raspy sound echoed in his throat. He turned to Jessie. “Did Barry actually use the word vengeance?”
“Yeah, he said, something like on wrongs swift vengeance waits. I think it’s a quote from somewhere. I could look it up on my phone.”
Jessie tried to move away, and Gerry pulled her back. “Maybe later.”
“Well, I’ve heard it somewhere before, I know that. I just can’t remember where.”
“This is just like the other cases,” said Gerry. “Barry?”
Juliet snorted. “He isn’t saying anything. You crushed his windpipe.”
“He’s lucky that’s all I crushed,” he muttered darkly. “What about fake Barry? Or whatever his name is – Clint. I need to talk to him. I need to find out who he really is and who he’s working for. Maybe he’s glamoured and…”
He started to sit up, and Jessie clutched at his shirt. “You’re leaving?” she asked in a small, trembling voice.
“Ah…”
“Gerry stay here, Gunner can handle this,” said Juliet.
“But…” He stopped and looked at Jessie, who gave him a pout. She didn’t want to be needy; she just was needy at that moment in time. Her squirrel chittered pathetically.
“Stay here with Jessie. Both of you try to get some rest. It’s been a long day. I’ll let you know what I find out.”
Gerry relaxed back into their hug as Juliet left.
Jessie sighed, fearing the words she had to say next. “You can go if you need to.” She wanted him to stay. But she didn’t want to force him.
“No, I need to be here, I need to make sure you’re okay. You’re the only thing that matters. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.”
She snuggled against him. “Me too.”
“I love you.”
Her beast mewled in exhausted joy. “Me too.”
*
Juliet returned an hour later with Gunner in tow. Jessie was asleep. She wouldn’t admit it, but she was in a lot of pain. That damn human almost killed her. She was healing thanks to her shifter genes, but it was going to be painful for a couple of days at least. The more he thought about it, the angrier his beast got, knowing how close he came to losing her.
As Juliet and Gunner stepped into the room, he placed a finger against his lips. He stroked a finger down her smooth, pink cheek, and murmured for her to sleep tight in a soppy voice. He heard Gunner snigger and ignored him. Dick had no right to judge when it came to getting moonstruck over a mate.
Juliet waved at him to hurry. He tried to maneuver them out of the hospital room, but Juliet was too impatient to impart her news.
“Our fake Barry is an out of work actor,” she whispered. “Someone hired him to wear the glamor and get caught speeding – they told him it was just a role.
“He was contacted and paid electronically,” murmured Gunner. “One of the techs tried to trace it, but they didn’t get anywhere.”
“Barry…” started Juliet and Gerry growled. He looked at Jessie’s sleeping form, and she stirred slightly before pulling the blanket around her tighter.
“Barry came around long enough to write the word lawyer – it seems unlikely we’ll get anywhere with him.”
“And that security guard isn’t talking either. He asked for a lawyer, too,” said Gunner. “You broke both his legs.”
“Good,” Gerry hissed. Gunner grinned – the polar bear shared that sentiment. “This case it has to be connected to the others.”
Juliet looked doubtful. “But wasn’t this just personal between you and Barry?”
“And all the others cases weren’t? They were all about vengeance. And you heard what Jessie said. That fuckwit Barry blamed me for screwing up his life. He thought that by hurting Jessie, he’d get his revenge.” Fuckwit agreed his livid beast.
“I know where I heard that quote before,” said a muffled voice.
“Jessica, go back to sleep,” barked Gerry a little more harshly than he intended.
She ignored him and sat up, rubbing her eyes. “I remembered where I heard that quote – about vengeance. It was Cora. She said the exact same thing to me. I can’t remember what we were talking about but…”
“Cora?” snorted Juliet. “The angry little mole shifter in the tech division?”
Gerry rubbed his chin as his python stirred. Cora? “When that otter shifter came into the SEA complaining about someone refusing to help him enact his revenge, Cora was there in the lobby. He got scared, and he ran away. He
could have seen her.”
“Seriously? Cora?”
Jessie frowned. “You don’t really think Cora has something to do with this, do you? She’s a little intense, but she’s just a nerd like me.”
“She’s nothing like you,” said Gerry quickly.
“Agreed,” rumbled Gunner, “she’s nuts. She practically declared war on Lake after he accidentally drank her milk from the staff break room.”
“But she’s just a little mole shifter!” wailed Juliet.
Jessie scowled. “And I’m just a little squirrel shifter, but I could still hack into your bank account and steal all your money.”
“Not my money,” muttered Juliet. “I don’t keep mine in bank accounts.”
“We should speak to Cora,” growled Gerry.
*
They found Cora at the airport. She’d called in sick for work that day but she wasn’t in her apartment, and it looked like someone had left in a hurry. News of Barry’s arrest had quickly spread and they feared that Cora was leaving town.
Jessie got her paws on a computer and while checking the local airports, train and bus stations, managed to track her through the cameras at Los Lobos International Airport. She discovered that Cora was using a credit card registered to the name Martha Allen and had bought a ticket to Switzerland. All they really had was a hunch about Cora, but it wasn’t looking like she was innocent.
If they were right, she was a very dangerous female who had been instrumental in at least four deaths. They needed to stop her.
Gerry had put his foot down and insisted that Jessie couldn’t come along. She was all for it. But even if she weren't still shaky and in pain he would have insisted that she remain behind. In this instance, He ordered her to stay put. She sulked a little, but she didn’t argue. He wasn’t sure how long she would actually listen to him when he gave out orders, so he was glad she listened. For good measure, he instructed the doctor to increase her pain medicine, so she was too sleepy to move.
It was for her own good!
Gerry and Gunner were going to try and talk to Cora, but they took a tactical team with them just in case. They’d called ahead to the airport and had security carefully start moving people away from Cora. They didn’t want to arouse suspicion, but they didn’t know what Cora might do if provoked.
They found Cora sitting on a bench next to the gift shop and smiling dully.
Lake the leader of the tactical team discreetly escorted two tourists out of the gift shop who were arguing about whether they should buy a gift for her mother.
“Cora,” said Gerry, slowly walking toward her.
“Not so fast.” Cora opened her palm. She was holding a stone - the exploding kind.
Gerry motioned for Lake and his team to stay back.
Cora let out a hollow laugh. “Damn, I actually thought Barry would hold out. To be honest, I didn’t think he even recognized who I was.”
“He hasn’t said a word,” said Gerry factually.
She blinked at him. “So you actually figured it out?”
“Put the stone down.”
The tactical team moved as one and took a step in her direction. She sucked in a breath and squeezed the stone. “If they shoot me, I’ll drop the stone. Tell them to stop moving.”
Gerry shook his head at Lake. “Cora, put the stone down carefully.”
“Don’t you even want to know why I did it?”
“Cora…”
“The day I killed my father’s murderer was the greatest day of my life,” she said wistfully. “I had to do it; no one else would. That guy ran my father off the road and murdered him, and they were going to let him get away with him because they claimed my dad was drunk.”
Gerry didn’t say anything. She didn’t seem to care whether he was listening or not.
“The SEA wasn’t interested in punishing that man, so I did it for them.”
“Cora…”
She snorted. “What’s the matter? Don’t you want my confession? I killed a guy when I was sixteen years old, and you know what? It was easy. Nobody even thought to blame me. After that, I realized that not everyone was as smart as me when it came to getting vengeance. I knew I had to help them. There are so many crimes that go unpunished. Frankly, I was doing you a favor – I was doing your job for you! You don’t even know how many people I’ve helped kill over the past sixteen years do you? It’s twenty-one,” she told him proudly. “Twenty-two if you include my father’s murderer.”
Gerry sucked in a breath, and she grinned.
“Yeah, you had no idea, did you? Maxwell Crescent – that was me, and you had no idea!”
“You framed Lance?”
“Yeah, I figured somebody had to stop him before he ruined anyone else’s life. You can yammer all you want about him not doing anything illegal, but he was destroying people’s lives.”
“And the other victims?”
“The otter shifter was number twenty-one – I was sorry about him, but I couldn’t trust him to keep him mouth shut.” Something must have shown in his expression because she became defensive. “I wasn’t doing any of this for fun or for profit – I was providing a service that people needed. But that otter moron wanted me to help kidnap his ex-wife so he could kill her, and you know why? Because she left him. He cheated on her repeatedly so she left him and he wanted to kill her. So I said no. See - I have my limits. But after he started flapping his mouth to you I knew I had to put a stop to it. Lucky I was there right when he came in and spoke to you, right?”
“And Barry?” asked Gerry coldly.
Cora paled. “I didn’t want to help him.”
The python howled. “He almost killed Jessica.”
“I didn’t want anything to happen to her,” she cried, wobbling as she stood up. “I’m glad it didn’t, I’ve felt guilty ever since I agreed to it. I just worried that you were getting too close to me, and I thought…”
“Her brutal murder would throw me off?” he suggested acidly.
“I wasn’t proud of myself. I didn’t even know I was meeting Barry that night – he was referred to me by another client. But after I did, there was no going back. When I heard you rescued Jessie, I was glad, but I knew it was over.”
She looked at the stone in her palm.
Gerry motioned for everyone to fall back. This wasn’t going to end well. She wasn’t going to put it down. She wasn’t going to let him arrest her.
“Cora, do not do this.”
Cora gave him a defiant look. “No matter what you think of me, I helped a lot of people.”
“Cora!”
She dropped the stone, and it exploded.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
“Gerry, Jessie, pancakes are ready!”
“Ummm, five more minutes,” mumbled Gerry as he nuzzled closer to her body.
Jessie snickered, vibrating against his body. “We better go, or she’ll come up here and whack us with a spoon.”
“Ugh.” She wasn’t kidding. Jessie’s mom, Barb, had done just that the morning before. She was adamant that each day was far too beautiful to be wasted in bed. Gerry disagreed.
Jessie threw back the pink covers and slipped out of his grasp. It was Christmas Eve, and they were staying at Jessie’s parents for the holiday. Two of Jessie’s younger sisters were sleeping in the living room, much to the jealousy of their brothers who also wanted to make a fort each night in there, and Jessie and Gerry were sharing their bedroom. It was an explosion of pink and Gerry was adamant that the eyes in the posters were judging them as they had sex. He complained about it until Jessie stopped laughing and took them down.
After the explosion at the airport, it was chaos in Los Lobos. The city’s biggest airport was closed at their busiest time of year. Luckily no one was actually hurt in the confusion. Security managed to evacuate everyone before it happened. Well, no one other than Cora and Gerry.
He suffered minor burns and bruises, but he managed to wangle a bed in the hospital next to Jessie�
�s, and when Nurse Hatchet Face wasn’t looking, he pushed their beds together. Jessie was still fussing over his bruises now and frowned at him every time he tried to do anything strenuous. She’d tried to suggest that they abstain from sex, but that was never going to happen. He didn’t mind her fussing at all.
Actually, he didn’t mind about much at that moment. He had his mate; he had reasonably good health, and he actually didn’t have a care in the world.
He supposed all the open cases over the past year were now closed. It was unlikely they could arrest anyone else for the deaths. The people who committed them would claim Cora was lying, and she wasn’t around to deny it – plus she didn’t actually implicate anyone for those murders. He imagined the SEA was trying to uncover everything Cora had done, but Gerry wasn’t sure they’d find out. He doubted Cora was lying when she said she killed twenty-two people. She was smart, and he doubted she would have been caught if it weren’t for the other people involved.
Gerry only knew about four deaths, five including Maxwell Crescent. He wondered who the others were she mentioned.
Lance was at least off the hook – since she had confessed to framing him in front of numerous SEA agents, the charges were dropped. Millie Crescent was nowhere to be found.
Barry was being charged with abduction, and the DA was trying to push for attempted murder. He hoped it stuck. Fucker.
Of course, Gerry was still suspended from the SEA, so he didn’t have to worry about the clean up for any of this mess. Well, having an SEA agent facilitating vigilante murder revenge fantasies was hardly good. Gerry had shied away from the news – he didn’t want to know what they were reporting about this.
No, he had gladly packed up and joined Jessie for a family Christmas in Nutsville. Jessie’s parents were a little nervous around him, but they were trying not to let it show. Her dad had even offered to put in a good word for him to the post office in case he needed a new job. He was grateful for the offer.
Jessie dragged him out of bed, and he tried cuddling her, but she was having none of it. “If it isn’t the spoon she’ll send in Hayley. Do you want my baby sister to come in and find you nude again?”
