She drew a gun from the back of her waistband with her right hand. But Victor found he couldn’t raise his.
In fact, he opened his fist and dropped his, as did Roberto.
The two men exchanged a horrified glance before returning their gazes to her.
Her grin widened. “Good. Bueno. You understand enough English.”
She knelt in front of them and made a motion with her hand, pinching her fingers and thumb together like an adult would to a child, silencing them. Victor realized he couldn’t speak.
A wave of horror washed through him.
We’re going to die.
And it’s going to hurt. A lot.
She picked up their guns and dropped them behind her on the ground before she sat, cross-legged, still manically grinning at them.
“I’m going to introduce you two bozos to a game I call ‘Dewi Says.’”
She laughed, and something deep inside him curdled in fear.
“Now, the last guys I played this game with didn’t do so hot. Let’s see how well you two do. Oh, heh, spoilers, you both absolutely will lose.”
He’d swear her canines gained length when she smiled again, baring a mouth full of teeth at them.
His bladder let loose.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Gravity worked in Nami’s favor going down the northern side of the ravine. Ken stood off to the side, ready to jump in to help stabilize her as much as possible when she was within his reach, but also able to get out of the way if she fell.
Once she was safely down, they scrabbled across the bolder-strewn ravine and over to where Ken thought the closest, easiest exit would be. It proved steeper than it had looked from the other side, but he still thought it was doable.
“I’ll go up first,” he said. “Follow how I do it.”
“Just move your ass,” she whispered back.
He found solid footing and started climbing, quickly reaching the top where he turned and waved her up.
She started up. Halfway, before Ken could grab for her arm, she lost her footing and fell back with a shriek, landing at the bottom of the ravine.
When she didn’t get to her feet immediately, Ken hurried back down to her.
“Come on!” He tried tugging on her arm.
“My right ankle!” she hissed, tears now rolling down her cheeks.
“If we don’t move,” he said, hating himself, “we are going to die.”
She let him help her up and hobbled back to the side of the ravine. Ken went up again. This time, despite her pain, Nami made it, falling onto the ground on the other side once she cleared the top edge.
More tears rolled down her cheeks. “I don’t think I can get up, Ken,” she whispered. “My ankle hurts too bad.”
He could see her right ankle already starting to swell. He looked around but didn’t spot any fallen branches stout enough that he could grab for her to use as a crutch or even a cane.
“Sweetie, please, you have to try. You can lean on me.”
She nodded and finally rolled onto her hands and knees, using Ken to help pull herself into a standing position with Ken on her right.
“That’s it,” he said. “Keep your arm around me.” He slouched, letting her drape her arm over his shoulder while he slipped his left around her ample waist. He carried the tire iron in his right hand.
“We can do this,” he said, leading her away. “We have to do this.”
* * * *
Joaquin did his damnedest not to worry about Malyah. By all rights, Peyton should have ordered Jack into the search for the intruders, but their pack Alpha had specifically told Jack and Moraine to stay put and protect Malyah.
I need to remember to thank him for that.
Joaquin knew both the wolves were deadly with weapons. If anyone tried to get into that house, they wouldn’t get far.
Peyton had made Joaquin hang back at the great hall for a few to help inform others who showed up about what was going on, then assign them a search section and send them out again.
“Joaquin!” Peyton called.
“Yeah?”
“Paul Storenson just checked in. He’s on his way back here with the Barsker kids. He said Dewi and Beck are on the ground and tracking four strange guys the kids saw in the woods. They might be the same guys Trent and the others are after. They headed into the woods about five miles from the great hall, south of the main road and just to the west of where it makes that hard curve to the north. Head out there and back them up.”
“Got it.”
Joaquin raced out to Jack’s car and didn’t bother with the seat belt, passing Paul going the other way a few minutes later.
Both vehicles slid to a stop in the middle of the road and Paul explained the exact place to Joaquin where Dewi and Beck had gone into the woods before Joaquin took off again.
He parked on the road, taking the keys with him and locking the car. It only took him a couple of minutes of sniffing to find Dewi and Beck’s scent trails and head after them, gun drawn. It didn’t take him long to come up on the scent trails of the strangers, but at that point it was easier for him to follow the freshest and most familiar scents of Dewi and Beck.
He tried not to think about Mexico, about tracking Raul Segura through the town, finding out where he lived, then his hasty escape later. That would cost him valuable attention he needed now, focused on this threat. What happened in Mexico couldn’t be changed, but this definitely could go many different ways—including some very bad ways—if he didn’t stay focused.
As he ran, Joaquin threw back his head and let out a long, loud howl to give the two Enforcers, as well as Trent and his men, notice that he was out here.
Ahead of him, Beck let out an answering howl. When Dewi and Beck’s scent trails split up just a few minutes later, Joaquin maintained his course following Beck’s trail. He came up on him minutes later. Beck stood there, staring in front of him, gun drawn.
“Paul’s getting the kids to the great hall,” Joaquin whispered. “Peyton sent me. Why’d Dewi split you guys up?”
“Because the guys we’re tracking did.” He tipped his head forward and continued, following the scent trail.
It was obvious there were two overlapping trails, an older trail of four distinct scents, then the two newer ones who’d backtracked. But then the return trails veered from their original course, apparently getting lost and heading south.
Beck looked around, then lifted his head and howled.
In the distance, to the west, they heard Trent respond.
Dewi should have responded, as she should have the last time, but didn’t.
Beck started after the scent trail again but Joaquin stopped him. “Shouldn’t we go find Dewi and make sure she’s okay?”
Beck hesitated, apparently undecided. Finally, he holstered his gun, cupped his hands around his mouth, and howled again.
Still no response.
“Dammit,” Beck muttered after a minute had passed.
“Want me to go after her?”
“No, stay with me. If she was in trouble, she would have howled.” Beck drew his gun and took off again.
Joaquin wasn’t sure about that logic, but he deferred to the other man and followed him, gun drawn.
* * * *
Saul’d had just about enough of this bullshit. Between seeing the young wolves, and now hearing what definitely sounded like larger wolves in close proximity, he wanted the hell out of there.
Ricardo looked scared out of his wits. The guy was only twenty-three, and while he was ripped with muscles and normally very imposing, Saul wasn’t sure a pack of wolves would really give a shit about the guy’s low BMI or six-pack abs.
It didn’t help that Ricardo had the intelligence of a streetlamp, only without the brilliance.
Guns or not, Saul didn’t want to start shooting the local wildlife just to attract the attention of any locals.
There was something out here in these woods that felt far more dangerous than the
y were. No, he wasn’t one usually spooked by the wilderness, but everything felt wrong. There should have been far better planning before they made this trek.
Hell, there should have been a goddamned plan in the first place, and not a hasty search based on half-assed intel they didn’t even know for sure was accurate. For all they knew, this could have been a trap set by the very people who’d killed Raul.
Usually blood-for-blood stopped at that. What if this had been far more, a rival cartel they weren’t aware of yet, or maybe even some outside player coming in and baiting Manuel in a way they knew he absolutely wouldn’t be able to ignore because family honor was involved?
What better way to do it than to salt clues leading the man—and his core support group—into the middle of the fucking wilderness?
Unfortunately, the farther and faster they ran, the less familiar any of the surrounding woods looked. Saul now had no clue where they were, or if they were even still going the right direction. With the sun fully obscured by clouds, everything was cloaked in shadows and not giving him a good bearing.
He pulled out his phone. Still no signal, but the compass showed him they’d been heading southeast.
“Shit.” He got them turned around and going northwest again. They couldn’t have gone too far in the wrong direction. They would either run into the road leading to town, or the main road they’d been paralleling on the way in.
Eventually.
He hoped.
“Fucking getting colder, man,” Ricardo said, shivering despite their exertion and speed. They were going faster than they had coming in, meaning it should cut their return time even with the delay.
“Thanks for the weather report,” Saul muttered. “Not like I’m standing right here or anything.”
“You don’t have to be an asshole.”
“Shh.” He stopped, holding his hand up for Ricardo to wait.
He’d heard…something. Something beyond the normal noises…
Which, eerily, had stopped. Other than the wind, there were no insects, no birds. A couple of minutes ago, the woods had been filled with the sounds of them.
The hair on the back of Saul’s neck stood up. He checked the compass on his phone again, made a quick course adjustment, and set off at a run with Ricardo close on his heels. The wind had definitely picked up and there was either rain or snow coming. He smelled the sharp tang of it in the air.
The only place he wanted to be less than right there was right there with it raining or snowing.
A chorus of several wolves howling not too far to the west of them made both men freeze.
“Fuck this shit,” Ricardo said. “We need to get the hell back to the car and find the others.”
“That’s the plan.”
“How we going to do that without the keys?”
“I don’t know yet. I’ll figure that out later.” Saul was cursing the fact that he hadn’t driven.
“But—”
“Just keep the fuck up!” Saul told him.
He suspected they were literally running for their lives.
Maybe Victor and Roberto hadn’t willingly deserted them after all.
That thought scared him more than the previous suspicion that maybe they had.
* * * *
Beck couldn’t keep his mind totally focused on tracking. “Did Peyton mention if he’d heard back from Web yet?” Beck asked Joaquin.
“About Ken and Nami?”
“No, about the Harlem Globetrotters. Who do you think?”
“Dude, fuck you. And no, sorry, not as of when I left the great hall.”
Beck blew out a long breath. “Sorry. I’m not trying to take it out on you.”
“Yeah, I know. Sorry I snapped back at you.”
Beck decided to be the bigger man. “Congratulations on your mating. I’m sorry this isn’t exactly the ideal celebration for your new relationship. And thank you for trying to keep it a secret. I appreciate the courtesy, but I wish you’d told me.”
Joaquin let out a snort. “I wasn’t sure if you or Nami would eviscerate me over it.”
Beck stopped and turned, holding his free hand out to stop Joaquin. “I know we’ve had our differences in the past but a mate changes everything. You’re my brother-in-law now. Okay, so you and Sadie had a thing. And you made a pass at Dewi. That’s all in the past.”
Beck pointed at the ground. “This is serious shit we’re dealing with right now. I know how I felt when I met Nami and how I thought I was going to lose my goddamned mind until I found her again. I know how you feel about Malyah, and I don’t want to risk something happening and not say this to you now—clean slate. Brothers.” He switched his gun to his left hand and stuck out his right. “Okay?”
Joaquin swapped his gun and shook with him. “Brothers,” he quietly said. “I really did try to keep our mating a secret. I’m sorry. I didn’t want to upstage you guys or Dewi.”
“I know. Peyton told us. Once we get through this shit and can get back to our previously scheduled crazy week, you and I will sit down, alone, and have a drink together. Because I think with two Drexler sisters as mates, we’re going to need it.”
He managed a smile and was glad Joaquin could muster one in return.
“Let’s go find and kill these fuckers,” Beck said.
“Deal.”
Beck turned back to the trail and let out a howl.
A moment later, they heard Trent’s faint howl in reply.
“Why does it sound like he’s getting farther away?” Joaquin asked.
Beck frowned. “I don’t know.” He looked up. “Dammit.”
Joaquin immediately spotted Beck’s vexation. “It’s snowing? Fuck me, we can’t catch a break.”
“It’s light. Hopefully won’t stick. But it might turn to rain and that will fuck with our tracking. Let’s hurry.”
Beck took the lead and started running.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Guillermo waited while Manuel tried to make up his mind. Manuel didn’t want to admit to his men that he thought they were lost. The junction they were sitting at wasn’t where he thought they were supposed to be, and he couldn’t find it on the satellite pictures on his tablet, either. It’d been almost two hours since they’d split up from the other four.
“Do you want me to backtrack?” Guillermo finally asked.
“No. Not yet.” This was going so, so wrong.
How could everything have gone to hell like this?
He checked his cell phone again.
No signal.
At war within him, his enraged need to extract revenge doing battle with common sense and gut instincts. If he felt these same misgivings any other time, he’d scuttle the operation and order everyone out of there to a place of safety to regroup for fear of an ambush or attack they couldn’t defend against.
He stared down at his tablet again, zooming in on the photos and trying to trace the way they’d come in. It almost looked like there were fewer roads appearing on the map and satellite photos than there were here on the ground. Nothing even paved, the main road that had led in from town was hard-packed gravel.
The rest of them were dirt.
Manuel unfastened his seat belt and got out out of the car, listening. The cold air startled him, smacking him in the face as he realized the temperature had dramatically dropped from when they’d left town.
All around them he heard the howls of wolves, mostly in the distance. The eerie sound sent gooseflesh creeping all over his body.
If he pulled back and his men were left waiting for him at the planned meeting point, what would that say about him as a leader?
If they even made it out again.
He had no way of contacting them.
Or what if they hadn’t even made it in?
Now he had men running around in rapidly deteriorating weather, men who weren’t even dressed for it.
I’m an idiot.
He wanted vengeance. His soul screamed for it, especially when
he remembered his brother dying in his arms, his mother’s grief-stricken screams before she collapsed.
His promise to her to make this right.
But he couldn’t do anything if he and his men were all dead.
He ran a hand through his hair and leaned in. “Shut the thing off.”
Guillermo did.
Silence fell, nothing but the wind, birds, insects.
No vehicles, no people.
Nothing.
Then, in the distance, the howl of a wolf skipped across the landscape, swirling around him and making him shiver in a way the cold wind hadn’t.
Manuel got back into the car and closed the door, locking it. “Turn around.” He consulted his tablet. “We need to find where we went wrong.”
It wasn’t a capitulation, but at least it was one way to buy him a little time before declaring a full retreat.
* * * *
Figures that the first time I get to see snow I can’t stop to enjoy it. Not even dressed to enjoy it.
Light flurries that probably wouldn’t stick, but it made a bad situation even more miserable. Especially if it turned into a misting rain like Ken suspected it might. His fingers felt numb but he refused to let go of the tire iron in his hand. It was his only weapon, the only thing he had to protect Nami and himself with.
Nami was doing her best to limp along, but her ankle was definitely messed up. Ken hoped it was only a really bad sprain and not broken, but they couldn’t stop even though their progress had slowed to almost a literal crawl as she did her best not to cry out with pain at every step.
And holy crap, was it cold. He could see his breath, and he and Nami both were shivering. He felt badly for her. In her skirt and casual flats, she wasn’t exactly dressed for a cross-country hike in rugged, mountainous terrain. At least he was in jeans and sneakers.
The wolf had returned, too. In the waning light, Ken caught glimpses of it tracking them every time he looked back. And he felt its presence. It was making less of an effort to keep itself hidden now that Ken had spotted it.
A Bleacke Wind (Bleacke Shifters Book 3) Page 24
