by Odessa Lynne
The most important had Geoff talking heavy into the phone. “She said she’s moving the timeline up, Dev. I don’t know what to do. Are you bringing the money or not? Please. I’ve got to know.”
Devon swiped his thumb over the phone and put it up to his ear.
“’Bout time you called, boy.”
“Gran,” he said. “I’ve got your money.”
“That’s my boy. Geoff was getting worried. I didn’t think you’d let him pay for your mistake.”
Goddamned bitch never changed.
Chapter 15
Arrangements made, Devon went to the living room and stretched out on the old couch that faced the window and waited for Brendan to return. He closed his eyes and didn’t realize he’d drifted off until he tried to roll onto his side and almost fell off the couch. He came awake to a jittery rush of adrenaline flowing through his veins and he had to sit up and put his head in his hands until the pounding behind his eyes eased.
While he’d slept, the room had gone dark. He pulled out his phone and realized that nearly four hours had passed.
He called out, “Brendan? Brendan, you here?”
No one answered.
Devon sighed and closed his eyes. Damn it. He’d already told Gran he’d be there with the money.
He couldn’t show up without the money.
Sweat had collected on his forehead and his sweat had soaked the underarms of his shirt. He stood up, slowly, and wiped his palms across his chest. He felt a shiver race through him.
Oh, yeah. He was infected. He started to twist his neck but the pull felt like sharp needles poking his skin and his breath hitched. He moved slowly, until he could finally turn his head without the sharp pains.
So, new plan. If he didn’t have the money, he couldn’t go to Gran. But if he waited to find Brendan and get the money, he’d probably die of the infection first.
Time to find Kem.
He’d done some thinking before he’d fallen asleep and he knew he had to find a way to trace the trackers he’d configured for Brendan. If the alpha had taken Ian, Devon had to get him back.
That tracker could also lead him to the new den—or wherever the wolves had gone—assuming the alpha still had Ian, and since Kem was part of the alpha’s pack, surely that would solve Devon’s problem. Kem could find him that doctor and take care of his infection.
The only problem: his money and Geoff.
But he had an idea. One that seemed risky as hell, but it could be the best way to get what he needed. If he was thinking straight. He didn’t feel the sharpest he’d ever felt, that was for sure.
He recorded a message for that lying son of a bitch Brendan and sent it. It was dark out. He could either wait here, not knowing when Brendan would be back for him, or he could hike his way through the woods to Ian’s place.
The thought made his nerves tingle. There might be wolves roaming, without drugs, and they might catch wind of him. If they did, there was no way he’d get away in the condition he was in. His hands shook as he stole a fresh t-shirt out of Brendan’s dresser and then peeled off his own sweaty t-shirt and pulled the new one down over his head, groaning a little when the move used muscles that were painfully sore and stretched his ribcage where a big bruise had formed.
If he ever got his hands on Jay, he was going to make that man pay for this shit.
He held his arm to his stomach for a minute, until the ache subsided.
He was going to have to risk it. His equipment was at Ian’s where he lived and if he wanted to trace that tracker he needed his equipment. He had his gun, but the small caliber weapon wouldn’t be very useful against wolves. Better than nothing, but not good.
He tapped his phone and wondered—
He had one other option.
Gerald owed him. Owed him big. And Gerald had transportation.
Devon sat back down on the side of the bed. Had to be better than a hike through the woods in the middle of night during heat season.
Chapter 16
The car skidded to the side of the road and hit the ditch in a startlingly abrupt slam into a half buried fence post. The car’s motor died instantly, the interior lights a faint glow on the screen while the metrics on the interior glass flickered twice but didn’t shut down.
The two deer running across the road disappeared into the woods to the other side of the ditch.
“Holy mother of—” Gerald interrupted his exclamation with a loud groan, fingers clenching around the steering wheel, before finishing with a teeth gritting yell, “God!”
“What the hell were you thinking?” Devon yelled. He slapped the back of his hand against Gerald’s chest.
Gerald grunted out a quick exhale.
Devon knew why Gerald hadn’t seen the damn deer. Gerald was a sleaze and he’d thought it would be funny to try to get his hand on Devon’s dick.
“I should have broke your hand, you little shit. I knew this was a bad idea!” Devon mashed his finger down on the screen in the console beside him and dragged the door open. The door unlatched and quickly slid back.
Gerald grabbed Devon’s hand. “No, wait! We’re still over a mile away.”
Devon scowled and eyed the hand gripping his. He flexed his fingers. “You have three seconds to let go of me or I’m going to break you goddamned nose. Three, two—”
“Done!” Gerald pulled his hands back and raised his arms, palms out. “No touching.”
“Let me make myself clear here. You touch me again without my permission—and I ain’t never giving you permission again—I’ll break your goddamned dick. Got it?”
“Got it. Shit. I was just having a little fun. I didn’t think you’d take it so serious.”
A loud roar caught Devon’s attention and he jerked his head around in time to see not one but three sets of glowing eyes at the edge of the woods a ways up the road, heading their way.
He threw his legs back into the car and jabbed his finger at the console screen. His gun shifted and jabbed at his spine where he’d tucked it into the back of his pants. “Fuck,” he said, breath feeling like it was lodged in his throat. “Get the car going, Gerald.”
He sounded strained even to himself. His heart started pounding and the extra surge of adrenaline made his head spin.
“Oh my God. That’s why the deer were running. Wolves are here. Shit.”
“Yeah. Shit. Get the car going.”
The motor started, but then immediately shut down again. Devon saw the auto shutdown bar flash across the screen beside the steering wheel.
Devon shoved Gerald’s hand out of the way and bypassed the standard start procedure, and used a code he’d gotten hold of during the time between leaving Gran’s and hooking up with Brendan. He’d learned a lot of things in those days. One of those things was how to get into the systems that controlled the remote automatic shutdown. He was pretty sure the thing had been implemented to stop police chases, but then it had spread to prevent people from leaving the scene of an accident, and then … well, then someone had figured out how to break into the system and deactivate it and now it was just something else to fix when things went wrong.
“Come on. I see them now.” Gerald’s knuckles looked white in the glow of the interior lights.
“Shade the windows,” Devon said. “All the way.”
The windows darkened as Devon finished what he was doing and he smacked Gerald’s thigh. “Go!”
Gerald restarted the car and this time it stayed on. Devon clenched his hands in his lap and dug his foot into the floorboard and fought the desire to yank Gerald out of the way and take over the wheel.
Gerald couldn’t seem to get the car to climb out of the ditch. “Come on!” he yelled and pounded the steering wheel.
Devon gritted his teeth and reopened the door. He stumbled out, not letting his gaze waver from the location of the wolves, skidded down into the ditch, where the grass grew so high it brushed the knees of his jeans and moved to the front of the car.
&nb
sp; A faint breeze stirred the grass and chilled his hot skin, and he smelled the bright tang of burned halfgas and the earthy scent of nearby pine trees.
He glanced down to see a second post stuck up under one of the wheels and saw that it was keeping the tire from making contact with the ground. He kicked at the post, the impact jarring through the sole of his boot, and tried to finish snapping the broken post in half. His next kick caused him to slip on the grass and he grabbed at the front of the car, hands sliding on the slick surface because of his sweaty palms.
He looked ahead again toward the woods, and instead of three wolves, he could make out the shadowy form of two males in the moonlit darkness, along with two sets of glowing eyes. The third was missing, and Devon had a flash of panic as he realized the third had probably gone back into the woods to come around on the other side of him. They were running toward him, and he had maybe thirty more seconds before it would be too late to get back in the car before they were on him.
He held onto the car and jumped up onto the post. The snap jolted through him, and the car shifted forward. He stumbled and then fell back on his ass against the side of the ditch, a gasping groan torn from his throat.
“That’s enough,” Gerald said, grabbing him. “No more time. Let’s go, let’s go.”
He hadn’t seen Gerald get out of the car but he was grateful because he’d knocked the breath out of himself with that last move. Gerald dragged him up and shoved him into the car, climbing in right on top of him and slapping his hand down on the door slider. The doors slid closed.
Devon pushed Gerald’s foot out of his face and tried not to get pissed all over again when Gerald’s crotch dragged right across his as he wiggled around, trying to get himself turned and back into his seat.
Something hit the door hard, shaking the car, and a wolf roared right outside Devon’s dark window.
“God Almighty!” Devon said. “Go!”
The view out the windshield lightened automatically as Gerald hit drive. The car’s tires spun and caught and the screech of claws on metal set every nerve in Devon’s body on edge, but the car moved, and after that, they outpaced the wolves quickly.
Less than three minutes later, Gerald turned down the road that led to Ian’s place, driving so fast the car did a sideways shimmy when he brought it into the turn.
“We won’t have much time,” Devon said. “If those wolves track the scent of the car, they’ll be here in five, ten minutes depending how fast they can move. I want you to drop me as close to the house as you can get and then wait for me. I’m going to grab everything I need and it shouldn’t take me that long.”
Assuming he could stay on his feet. Devon’s head was pounding and what few energy reserves he had were just about gone.
But Gerald was nodding, the dimly lit interior streaking shadows across his face. “Will do. You can count on me.”
“Thanks,” Devon said.
“So when this is over, you want to rethink hitting the sack with me?”
“No.” But he let his gaze roam over Gerald’s lean shape and linger at the pleasant-sized bulge at his crotch. He owed Gerald for his help here and it wasn’t going to kill him to be nice. “Maybe if I wasn’t already attached, I’d think about it.”
They were on a straight stretch of road and Gerald quickly reached for Devon’s thigh. “Aw, come on, you weren’t attached to anybody less than a—”
Nice only went so far.
“Why the hell don’t you have sense enough to be afraid of me?” Devon asked. “I already warned you what would happen if you do that.”
Gerald put his hand back on the steering wheel and grinned. “Mama always said I was too curious for my own good. You make me curious.” Gerald turned his grin on Devon. “I like your tattoo and I want to ride that piece of meat you’ve got.”
The car did another sideways slide as Gerald brought the car to a shuddering halt just feet from the front porch steps of Ian’s house.
“Forget it,” Devon said, already swiping his thumb down to open the door. “Now don’t go anywhere.”
Devon jumped out of the car and ran up the steps to the front door. He swiped his finger over the lock screen, drawing the combination quickly, and the lock released. He pushed the door open and stepped into the empty house. It had been over a week and a half since they’d moved to one of the shelters for the season but Ian had been traveling a lot and Devon had spent more than a few nights away lately trying to get together what he needed to resolve the Geoff problem.
He found his computers and his tools on the old wood table he worked at in what was supposed to be an extra bedroom, and he had to pick through them for what he needed because he couldn’t carry everything. He also had one of the wolves’ computers but he’d never figured out how to work it. He hesitated over it for a split-second and then shoved it into the bag he had already filled with as much as he could carry. The wolves’ devices were super slim and light-weight so it wasn’t like it was going to add anything to his load. He didn’t have time to second guess himself.
He stared around his cluttered workspace and tried not to feel the clench of guilt trying to suffocate him. He’d had to do something when Geoff called him that first time and Brendan had been offering paying work. But the guilt didn’t fade, because he’d suspected the trackers Brendan wanted would be put to use by the renegades. He just hadn’t let himself care.
Now he cared and he felt like shit for having configured them so carefully.
He could warn them—warn Kem. He could share his knowledge with Kem so the wolves would know about the new protocols he’d created and be able to counter the technology. He could warn them about the threat from their own that Brendan had mentioned.
He had quite a lot to barter when it came down to it. He had himself and his submission. Surely Kem would trade a few hundred gold ten-dollars for all that.
He glanced at his phone, and saw that three minutes had already passed, and that was long enough. He threw the bag over his shoulder and turned to the door.
His pounding head didn’t react well to the sudden change of orientation and he staggered and had to grab the edge of the table. When his balance returned and the dizzy spin stopped, he took off down the hallway and into his bedroom. He had to drop the bag and it thumped onto the mattress. He went down on his knees and thrust his arm under the bed, fingertips stretching.
There. He grabbed the handle and pulled the heavy lockbox from under the bed. He wouldn’t have time to come back for it.
Finally, he was ready to get the hell out and head back to Gerald’s car, but—
Ian had guns and a lot of them, and knives, and plenty of ammunition.
He should—
He heard a roar and the sudden loud blaring of a car horn.
Shit.
Chapter 17
Devon grabbed the bag and the lockbox and ran for the stairs that led to the attic room where Ian stored his weapons and hoped to God Gerald didn’t let himself get killed. Light spilled through the hallway from his workroom, becoming nothing but dark shadows the further he got from it.
Ian’s grandfather had been a military man and he’d left Ian a decent collection of weapons when he’d died. Devon had whistled when he saw them and Ian had laughed at him, because until that moment, Devon hadn’t been much for weapons outside of a pocket knife and a small gun he had taken from Gran when he’d left.
He’d been fucking Brendan for about a week at the time and he had hated Ian within five minutes of meeting him, because it was the first time he’d witnessed Brendan and Ian together and he’d realized right away that Brendan was just passing time with him, waiting for Ian.
He didn’t like those memories, didn’t like the reminder that he’d almost thought he was in love for the first time. That meeting had saved him from a much bigger heartache later but he’d had a hard time getting friendly with Ian and it had taken a couple years before they’d moved past it.
And Brendan hadn’t even no
ticed, the asshole. Devon was a hell of a lot closer to Ian these days than he was to Brendan.
He turned the corner at the landing, then slammed through the door and breathed in the stale air filling the uncooled attic room. Moonlight filtered in through a small square window on the far side of the room. He crossed the plywood floor to the sound of Gerald laying down on the horn.
His nerves stretched taut.
If he didn’t get to rest soon, he was going to fall over, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on how much like shit he felt.
He dropped the lockbox and dragged out a rifle from among the collection of guns, one of the few he’d practiced with, and then started looking for the ammo that went with it.
A clatter sounded from somewhere below in the house.
Devon’s heart thudded heavy against the inside of his chest and he made himself take a slow breath.
He wasn’t good enough with the weapon to load it in the dark.
He went to the door and found the cheap switch plate. The lights blinked on.
He shoved a handful of bullets into the gun, one after another. He wished he knew how to load one of the goddamn bigger guns but he had to settle for something he knew how to use.
If circumstances had been different, this could have been Kem he was preparing to stand off against. Kem and his pack, and the thought made him hesitate on the last bullet, but then he gritted his teeth and shoved it in place anyway.
Couldn’t think about that. Heat season and human scent drove all rational thought from their brains and those wolves had come after him and Gerald so aggressively that there was no way they were on repression drugs. They were dangerous and he had only two choices here, assuming the wolves weren’t already in a frenzy, and that was submit or fight, and by God, he had too many important things to do to do anything but fight.
The blaring car horn silenced abruptly. Devon’s phone sounded a message and he grabbed it out of his pocket with his free hand, the gun heavy in the other.
He heard a bang somewhere below, at the foot of the stairs.
