“I heard everything you just said.”
“Why doesn’t that answer make me happy?”
“Because you know me. Create a freakin’ disturbance. I’m at the window.”
“If you die, I’ll make your afterlife a living hell,” he threatened.
“Right back at ya, Big Boy. Ruckus. Now.”
And he did. He started reciting the mathematical equation of Pi in its near infinite entirety at the top of his lungs. Clearly the recitation of the numbers confused the deadly duo and shouting ensued. Without hesitation, I shimmied through the window and went to work.
The self-tanner smelled awful, but that barely registered. All the buttons had been pushed and the monitor was now on. I left the volume muted to be safe and watched the worst and most terrifying reality show I’d ever seen play out.
Junior was strapped to a chair with silver chains. His skin was raw and bloody and his face had clearly been used as a punching bag. Swallowing back the bile in my throat, I assessed the situation. All three were naked. They’d obviously shifted and neglected to put clothes back on—this was to my advantage. It was clear they were unarmed.
I wasn’t.
Gina sat in a chair opposite Junior and was carving her name into his thigh with her claws. Giles stood against the wall and watched with rabid and bloodthirsty fascination as his mate grossly defiled my man.
“Headbutt Gina in thirty seconds,” I instructed. “I only need a few seconds to pin Giles to the wall.”
“What part of stay in my mother humpin’ room did you not understand?” Junior bellowed.
“Do it. She’ll carve out your heart before Hank gets here and that heart belongs to me,” I told him.
“I do not feel good about this. I repeat—do not feel good about this.”
“On three,” I said, putting one knife in my right hand and four matching long daggers in my left. To go completely through a thigh and shoulder, I needed the weapons to be long and sharp—thank Jesus Hesus Christ that I’d brought a wide variety of toys. If I pierced Giles’ shoulders correctly, which I would, he’d lose the use of his arms.
There were two more knives in my belt with Gina’s name on them—unfortunately that was all I had left. Nailing her would be tricky after she saw what I would do to Giles, but that didn’t even give me pause.
Quickly kissing my blades for good luck, I centered myself and glanced once more at the monitors. Everyone was still in the same place.
Perfect.
Time for the finale of the show and I was going to be the star…I hoped.
“One,” I said as Junior reluctantly joined me. “Two…three.”
The sound of Junior’s skull slamming into Gina’s forehead was sickening, but it did the trick. My entrance went unnoticed, but my performance didn’t. In rapid succession, I flicked and threw—flicked and threw—flicked and threw. Five times and nailed all my targets. Giles Giles was pinned to the wall and bleeding profusely.
His screams were music to my ears—better than the Star Trek theme song. If I’d thrown at a slightly different angle, I knew I could have killed him. However, my mother’s words rang in my head… You don’t want to live with the burden of killing needlessly. Most times there’s another way.
Killing them would be a gift. I wasn’t about to bestow anything so precious to the people that were trying to destroy everything I held dear. Shunning was total devastation to a Shifter, but to be shunned one had to be alive. Giles Giles was still alive—barely, but alive.
“You bitch,” Gina screamed, diving at me.
Thoughts—both helpful and decidedly unhelpful—raced through my mind as I went for a knife.
Stay forward on my feet. Never take my eyes off the target. 110 degree angle. Aim for base of nose.
Never slap balls unless dealing with a Viking.
Duck and wait for the aggressor to get sloppy. Never attack in anger.
Doesn’t have to be pretty—simply accurate.
When Junior and I tie the knot I wonder if it would be cheesy to wear Star Trek uniforms?
The punch to my face was jarring, but the razor sharp claws raking down my cheek hurt like a mother humper. Junior’s roar of rage exploded in the room as I was thrown like a doll and slammed into the wall.
Shitshitshit. All that would have been painfully okay if my knives hadn’t flown from my hands due to the impact of body slamming the wall. I was completely screwed.
“What have we here?” Gina hissed as she eyed me trying to get back to my feet. “How nice—one of your little whores. This is certainly convenient. She’s such a pretty thing, isn’t she? It’s too bad I’ll have to tear her apart. Can’t leave any unfinished business.”
She did not just call me a whore. I was many things: a crier, a nerd, a geek and a weapon free Werewolf who was probably going to die.
However, I was not a whore.
“I’m no whore, you big haired skank-hole,” I snarled. “I’m his mate.”
“Really?” she asked with a vicious fang-baring sneer. “How exciting. I can kill Junior’s mate and he can watch. This night keeps gets better!”
She paced back and forth eyeing me with curiosity.
“Bleeding over here,” Giles shouted only to be ignored by Gina.
“Figures you would have picked one of them cultured gals,” she hissed. “I have culture. And I can guarantee I’m a lot better in bed than the hussy you mated.
“The only kind of culture you’ll ever have is a yeast infection,” I shot back as I stood up and glared.
“What language are you speaking, bitch? ̓Cause it sounds like bullshit,” Gina growled.
“You know what, Gina? It’s better to let everyone think you’re a dumbass than to open your mouth and prove it,” I shot back, using one of my brother Caleb’s best lines.
“Stop it,” Junior hissed in my head. “She’s every kind of crazy. You do not need to rile her ass up anymore. But I gotta congratulate you on those lines—freakin’ brilliant.”
“Thank you. Having six brothers helps.”
“Time to die Miss Georgia. Gettin’ bored here,” Gina informed me gnashing her fangs and extending her claws.
“Not so fast,” I said, remembering my task and trying to figure out how to get my knives back. Only problem with that—they were on the floor by Giles.
Shitballs.
“I know you’ve been embezzling millions from the Council.” I grabbed the paper from my pocket and tossed it at her. “Give up now and I’ll destroy the evidence.”
I was lying though my teeth, but it fell so very easily from my lips.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” she asked as she perused the papers with glazed and furious eyes.
“Well…umm…” I replied vaguely, not knowing quite how to answer without pissing her off even more.
It was the right thing to do to let her surrender, I told myself. If I killed her without giving her an out, I’d be as worthless as she was. Not to mention I had little to no chance of killing her.
“It was Giles, not me,” she spat, throwing her mate under the bus and lunging for me. “I’m not going down for this. I’ll just kill all of you.”
“Lying bitch,” Giles shrieked as he futilely tried to dislodge himself from the wall. “It was your idea and you’re the one who fucked half the Council to get the account numbers.”
“I enjoyed it and I’ll do it again to make this go away,” she screamed, turning her fury from me to her mate and gut punching him.
Well, there was some news that I wasn’t able to glean from hacking. Gross and ohmygod, Essie was going to need that piece of info. Not much of a surprise that the Council was crooked—but having sex with Gina?
As Gina and Giles hurled blame and horrifying insults at each other, I took stock of how Junior was chained up. Gina’s claim of not being stupid was so obviously not true …lucky for me—and Junior. While he was bound expertly, the keys to the locks that held him immobile were on the floor to the left of
his chair. If I could get his hands free, he’d be able to do the rest.
Twenty-five feet. Two locks. Murdering ho-bag between me and my target and no knives to deal with her. My head was still pounding from the violent contact with the wall and my vision was slightly blurred. Of course I would heal—I was just unsure if I would heal in time.
Whatever.
Healing was for wussies… according to my brothers.
At the moment, I was a dizzy, bleeding, computer-hacking Werewolf who was very much in love with the Werewolf who was chained and dying across the room.
Do or die—That was my new motto.
“I’m going for your hands,” I told him. “I’ll get them free and then you do the rest.”
“Pin her to the wall like you did Giles,” Junior instructed tersely. “Too risky for you to free me while she’s loose.”
“No more knives,” I explained as I slid closer to him while the dastardly dumbasses were still tearing into each other.
“Bad plan, Sandy. Very bad plan.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” I muttered as I kept my eyes on Gina and inched my way to Junior.
Getting the key was far easier than I thought. Quickly and clumsily shoving it in the lock felt like it took hours. Terror made my hands shake, but I put it in the keyhole. However, just as I was about to turn the key she attacked.
It was like a freight train that went off the tracks as it hurtled to hell.
Junior’s kitchen table felt like it was made of cinderblocks as Gina face planted me on top of it. The housing cabinet edge of the PC we were going to upgrade sliced a gash over my eye. Blood poured out practically blinding me. Junior’s howl of agony as Gina dove on top of me chilled me to the core. If I’d only had a few more seconds I could have freed him. The stupid key was in the lock and neither of his hands were free.
As Gina’s claws and fangs shredded my back, I tried desperately to bring my arm to a 110 degree angle and flip over. Not happening—she was on a mission and she was going to succeed. All I could feel was my beautiful computer tool kit—my perfect present from the perfect man. The man who was watching me die and then going to be killed by the horrible excuse for a Werewolf who would end both of us.
I prayed desperately to God that Hank would arrive and save Junior. That would make all of this worth it. Clutching my kit to my chest, I begged all the angels and saints to save him. I had wanted to be the one to save him…
“Screwdriver. Pliers. Kit. Now,” Junior yelled through clenched teeth. “Do it. NOW!”
What the hell was he talking about? My back was on fire and soaking wet with my own blood and Junior was yelling about a screwdriver?
Wait. The. Hell. A. Minute.
It was a long shot. It was the longest shot in the world. However, it was the only shot I had.
With strength I didn’t know I had, I pulled the screwdriver from my kit and waited for a momentary break in her attack. It was a mere second, but it was all I needed. Flipping over and cocking back, I plunged the tool into her head between her eyes. The look of shock on her face almost made me laugh, but nothing was even remotely funny about what I had just done… or what I was about to do.
As Gina stumbled back howling in pain, I grabbed three more screwdrivers and four sets of plies and I let them fly. I flicked and threw—flicked and threw—flicked and threw. I nailed her head, her neck and her heart. I didn’t throw to slow her. I threw to kill her. Like Bubba and Duke said…it was her or me—no choice. And she was definitely gunning for my own.
The ringing in my ears as I went for more weapons was deafening. I only vaguely heard her screams. Without hesitation I crawled to where I’d pinned Giles and retrieved my knives. She was halfway down, but still alive somehow. With deadly accuracy I went again for her heart. Both knives hit target and she finally went to the floor with a thud, but she wouldn’t stop screaming. The screaming hurt my ears—it was so noisy and horrifying. I needed it to stop. Why wouldn’t she die?
“Sandy,” Junior yelled, shaking me violently. “Baby, look at me.”
He wiped the blood from my face and kept shaking me. What he really needed to do was go after Gina—the screaming—she wasn’t dead. She would kill him and then me.
“Sandy, stop. It’s over. Stop baby. Please,” he said pulling me close to his wounded body.
And that’s when I realized it wasn’t Gina screaming.
It was me.
I slapped a hand over my mouth as my wailing turned to whimpers.
“Are you okay?” I choked out with raw throat. “Is she dead?”
“She’s dead. You’re not. I’m not. Your plan was shitty. I swear to Jesus Hesus Christ in a jock strap, I died a thousand deaths watching you, but it worked.”
“How did you get free?” I asked, running my hands over him to make sure he was really in front of me. He was a bloody mess but had never looked so beautiful.
“My teeth,” he said with an exhausted grin as he continued to wipe blood away from my eyes. “I turned the key on my right hand with my mouth and opened the lock and then had a free hand to open the other.”
“I saved you,” I whispered brokenly as the floodgates opened and the reality of what just occurred hit me.
“You sure as hell did,” Granny announced as the entire backup posse arrived at once. “It’s a dang mess in here,” she went on as she squatted down and checked for a pulse on Gina.
“She dead?” Hank asked as he eyed Giles pinned to the wall.
“As a doornail,” Granny confirmed with an impressed nod.
“Take that trash out back. I want her out of my house,” Junior said, gratefully accepting a robe from his mother.
Hank, Essie, Dwayne, Granny, my parents, and my brother were all there. Along with Dima and Nicolai, Sadie and Jack and Essie’s folks. They stood in a clump and took in the scene with expressions of awe on their faces.
“Well, looks like our girl can do more than hack,” my mother said with a nudge to my shocked father.
“Runs in the family. The Moongies are a violent bunch,” Caleb said with a proud grin and a thumbs up to me as he dragged the lifeless body of Gina out of Junior’s house. “Junior, you best keep that in mind if you ever piss my sister off.”
“Noted,” Junior replied, picking me up and gently taking my shaking body to the couch.
My back was still on fire and my blood dripped all over the carpet as he carried me, but I was alive—and so was he. Junior and I would heal. Gina would not. Taking someone’s life was not fun or anything I wanted to do on a regular basis. However, I was surprised I felt very little guilt. Mostly I felt relief that it was over and grateful that both Junior and I were still here.
“You bastards are gonna pay for this,” Giles shouted from his affixed position on the wall.
“Really?” Essie asked as she approached him. “How do you figure that, shit for brains?”
“That bitch killed my mate. She’s gonna pay,” he shouted, still trying to extract himself from his pinned predicament on the wall.
“Umm…I don’t think so,” Essie said with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “You attacked the Alpha of the Georgia pack unprovoked and then tried to kill him. Bad mojo to kill an Alpha, Giles. You’ve broken every Werewolf law on the books, douchebag. The Council will deal with you. I promise it’s going to be far more painful than the situation you’re in right now.”
“Fuck the Council,” Giles spat with a laugh that hinged on insanity. “I have those dumbasses in my pocket. All you pieces of shit are going down. Just you wait and see.”
“I can mind meld him,” Dwayne offered. “However, we should take him out of the house if I’m going to do that—very messy and smells like Hell in July.”
“No, but thank you,” Junior said with a small shudder. “Not necessary.”
Dwayne had mind melded two evil Dragons a while back. We’d had to tell the humans in our town that the explosion had been a backup in the sewer system. The sten
ch had lingered for weeks.
“Wanna explain the Council being in your pocket? I find that a little far fetched because I believe you’re the reason the gene pool needs a lifeguard. Don’t really believe you’re smart enough to pull anything over on anyone,” Essie said, taunting him.
“For me to know and you to figure out,” he snarled.
“Gina had sex with half the Council to get the back account numbers,” I said as Giles’ face went purple with fury. “Not sure how they stole the money—it’s a wildly complicated procedure. If I had to guess, I’d say several of the Council member’s wallets are a little fatter due to some coaching. Apparently we have some very crooked Council members with horrific taste in women.”
“That’s certainly interesting,” a new voice said flatly.
Sweet hell on earth.
The Council had arrived.
Chapter Fourteen
Three bland looking men stood in Junior’s open doorway and took in the scene with distaste and disgust. They entered the house as our clan slowly parted and gave them the floor.
“Your hacking skills are outstanding, Essie. Thank you for the information,” the man said.
Essie turned her back slightly on them and gave everyone a don’t say a word look that I was wildly grateful for. “Thank you,” she replied with a curt nod.
“Could you be more specific?” the man asked me, turning his attention away from Essie.
“About?” I asked in a whisper, hoping to hell and back that he didn’t know Essie was covering for my hacking ass.
“About the illicit relations with Council members,” he replied in a clipped tone.
“Umm…no sir. No names were mentioned—just that Gina had, umm…you know…umm, had relations with half the Council,” I stammered, so relieved I almost cried.
The power and magic of the newest arrivals bounced around the room and I shrank back into Junior. My brain raced trying to come up with a plausible story aka lie if they asked me anything about the hacking. There was no way in hell I wanted to work for the Council. They were frightening.
“Giles, would you like to come clean now or shall we go for a little walk?” the man inquired coldly as the other two men stood silently beside him.
Were Me Out Page 11
