by Terry Spear
Never had a perp taken her hostage either! If she made it through this okay, her sisters would never let her live it down. Not that she had any intention of letting the family know how he’d gotten the best of her, once she had him under control.
As they got closer, she could see that the log cabin sat near the river, with a dusty black Suburban parked beside it. She worried where Sarandon and his cousin intended to go with this, particularly when they had to know she wasn’t leaving peaceably without taking Sarandon with her.
“I need to make a call,” she said, her voice rising a bit in annoyance as she scowled up at Sarandon.
“To the bail bondsman you work for?” Sarandon’s hand grasped her arm firmly, and he wasn’t easing up.
At least her wrists were tied in front, which could afford her a better opportunity to free herself, if she had the chance. All she’d need to do was reach her boot knife, make short work of the ties, and run. Then she’d have to get back to town, contact the sheriff’s office, and have them help her take Sarandon into custody.
He was carrying his rifle over his shoulder. Jake walked beside them, a pack on his back, her rifle and Taser in his hand, her ID and cell phone in one of the backpack’s pockets.
Irritated to the max, Jenna was trying to figure out a way to get all her stuff back. She had no intention of seeing the pack leaders. Trying to take on two male wolves at the same time and forcing Sarandon to return with her might be more than she could handle on her own though.
Yet she was making the attempt the first chance she got. She’d never let her family down before, and she wasn’t about to now.
* * *
Jenna St. James truly was armed and dangerous. Not to mention that she was wearing a bulletproof vest beneath the black windbreaker, and a black fugitive recovery agent T-shirt underneath that. She must have thought Sarandon was really dangerous. She even had a badge, which surprised the hell out of him. They checked her driver’s license and compared it with her badge and her appearance, verifying she was who she said she was.
She still had the wrong man.
She was petite, compared to Sarandon’s height and his muscular build. He guessed the only way she would have been able to get the upper hand would have been to tase him. He was glad he’d taken her down before that.
He knew she didn’t like the idea of meeting with Darien and Lelandi, but she didn’t have a choice. He suspected that if she could, she’d try to get free, take him into custody, and drive him to Colorado Springs. The bond money was too important for her to risk losing him. He didn’t blame her for what she thought she had to do.
“Do you have a sat phone?” she asked.
Sarandon glanced at her. She was scowling again. “In the line of work you’re in, you ought to have one. The guy you’re after could turn out to be really bad news—”
“Like you?” She arched a brow.
Sarandon smiled at her. “Like any of the real criminals you are after. Not like me.”
“I don’t have a satellite phone. Just a cell phone.”
“There’s no cell reception this far into the wilderness,” Sarandon told her.
“Naturally.”
“Well, I’m not the man you’re looking for,” he said. “Which means he’s apparently still out there using my identity. Unless he’s afraid of getting caught, in which case, he’ll be using someone else’s identity.” That made Sarandon want to turn into his wolf and take the guy down permanently. Stealing someone’s identify could cause problems with work, family, and friends—and for a wolf, real trouble if they were jailed. What if this guy impersonated a wolf who didn’t have a whole pack to back him up? And who was more newly turned and couldn’t control his shifting?
Sarandon wondered how the real suspect had managed to steal his identity. Was it someone he knew?
He unlocked and opened the door to the cabin for Jenna. She walked inside and glanced around at the living room furnishings, taking a deep breath to smell all the wolf scents left there. A large, velour-covered sofa bed sat in front of a warm fire, comfortable recliners on either side of it. A love seat was in one corner, and big pillows stacked on the floor offered ample seating for several people. Beyond the living room was a kitchen, and a table with eight chairs sat in the dining room between the two other rooms. “The cabins have four bedrooms and we can accommodate six to ten pack members, if we have guests. Like you.”
“Where are the antlers or the poor dead elk head? It’s Elk Horn cabin, right? At least that’s what the plaque said on the door.”
“We prefer steaks on the grill. No dead animals hanging on the walls. No wolves feasting on elk carcasses. Just photos Jake took of the elk in the forests or in the meadows full of flowers.”
“They’re beautiful, Jake,” Jenna said, sounding like she really did admire them.
“Thanks. I’m a photographer. Mostly a wildlife photographer, but lately, I’ve been doing a lot of family portraits.” Jake laid her weapons on the dining room table. Then he pulled out her ID, badge, phone, and car keys and put them next to the rifle. He slung his backpack with his camera equipment over the back of a chair.
“Well, they’re wonderful.”
Sarandon sat her down on the couch, then removed the plastic ties around her wrists and rubbed them gently, knowing the reddened skin would be perfectly fine in a few minutes because of their fast-healing wolf genetics. She frowned up at him. “You could make this easy on yourself.”
“On you, rather? Why would you have an innocent man turn himself in, pretending to be a criminal? It’s not happening. When the police learned the truth, you’d be embarrassed that you’d caught the wrong man, and a wolf at that. In the meantime, you would’ve let the guilty man go.”
“I doubt that the police would deny I had the right man.”
“That issue aside, how did you ever think you could take me down and haul me off?” He still couldn’t believe her gumption.
“The Taser would have done the job.”
He folded his arms and considered her slight build. “And then what? You would never have been able to get me into your car.”
“I would have managed.”
Sarandon highly doubted it. “You must be new at this.” Either that, or he’d rattled her because she hadn’t expected him to be a wolf.
“No, I’ve been doing this for years, and I’ve never had any trouble. The man, or woman, gives up without a fuss, or I have to use a little extra encouragement. But I’ve always caught my guy. You’re the first who has been a real problem.”
Jake was standing in the dining room, listening to them but staying out of the way. He knew two male wolves might intimidate her too much, and they had to learn what was going on.
“How many wolf suspects have you taken down?” Sarandon suspected none, or he wouldn’t have startled her so.
“One.”
Wondering how she’d managed that without getting herself in serious trouble, he raised a brow, wanting to hear the whole story. Maybe the guy had been a beta or omega wolf.
“Well, one still in progress. I’m working on it. Currently.”
He smiled. “Me?”
“If you’ve got the situation under control, I’ll bring her car up to the cabin,” Jake said, smiling. He grabbed her car keys off the dining room table.
“Where’s your car, Jake?” Sarandon asked, wondering how his cousin had gotten there.
“Alicia dropped me off. She was going to pick me up in a couple of days at the cabin.” Jake frowned at Jenna. “If you’ve been doing this for some time in Colorado, you may know other bounty hunters. My wife is one. She was trying to hunt down some mobsters when I met her—and we fell in love. She was working for a bail bondsman while she tried to track the criminals down.”
“Alicia Silver?” Jenna shook her head. “Never heard of her.”
&n
bsp; “Alicia Greiston, maybe?” Jake asked.
Jenna’s jaw dropped. “She was human when I met her.”
“Same here when I first met her. She was eyeing these mobsters in a restaurant, and I believed she needed some protection. Anyway, one thing led to another. One of the mobsters turned her, and eventually, we were mated. Best thing that could have ever happened to me. When the kids came, she wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I was glad for that. Not that I wasn’t proud of what she was doing, but I worried about her because she was so newly turned.”
“And you needed someone to take care of your kids.”
“We have a pack to help out. So no problem there.”
Sarandon knew Jake preferred for Alicia to stay home and not risk her life trying to apprehend potentially dangerous suspects.
He caught Jenna glancing again in the direction of her Taser, making a calculated risk assessment. He didn’t trust that she wouldn’t make a go for it. Could she get it before he tackled her again? Not with two men in the cabin, but maybe when Jake left to move her car.
“Let me lock these away first.” Sarandon hauled the rifles, Taser, and pistol into the bedroom where they had a locking gun cabinet.
In the meantime, Jake said to her, “You know that you have the wrong man. We’ll help you track down the right guy.”
“For a price,” Jenna said skeptically.
“No. We’re wolves, Sarandon’s part of our pack, and someone’s using his identity to break the law. This is something we would get involved in anyway.”
Sarandon finished locking the weapons in the gun cabinet, then shoved the key into his jeans pocket. He rejoined them in the living room. “Weapons are secure.” He smiled down at Jenna, but she looked so vixen-like that he wondered if she knew a secret he didn’t. He reached down and took hold of her arm and pulled her to stand. “I didn’t think we needed to pat you down, not after confiscating all your other weapons. I didn’t figure you’d be armed with anything more than that. Maybe that’s a mistake.”
“Is that how you get your jollies?” she asked, sounding highly annoyed.
Ignoring her comment, he patted her down, having to admit that touching her sure stirred up his pheromones again, when he was trying hard to keep this impersonal. When he reached her jeans pockets, he found a can of spray. “Well, well.” He handed it to Jake and continued patting down her pants legs until he came to her boots. He smiled to see a knife tucked inside. “Really, girls shouldn’t play with knives.” He pulled it free and gave it to Jake.
Jake tsked. “How did you miss those the first time?”
“We both missed them.” Sarandon hadn’t thought she’d be carrying anything more than what they’d already taken.
“I’ll lock it up and then get the car.” Jake took the knife and pepper spray and headed into the bedroom. All the Silver wolves had a key to the gun cabinet, just in case. And they never left their rifles when they weren’t staying there.
Once Jake had locked them up, he left the cabin.
Feeling sure she wouldn’t pull anything, Sarandon helped her to sit back down, then went to the kitchen. “Do you want something to drink?”
“A beer.”
“You’re on a job.” Sarandon was amused she’d ask for a beer when she was working a case.
“It appears I’m taking a break. Can I have my phone back?”
“Sure.” Since she couldn’t call for reinforcements from her company or the police, he brought her a beer and her phone, then took a seat on a chair across from her.
“You’re not going to join me in a drink?”
“When Jake returns.”
“Okay, do you want me to tell you what I know?” Jenna took another sip of her beer and set the bottle down on the wolf coaster on the coffee table.
“Why don’t we wait until Jake returns so he can hear the whole story.”
“What are you planning to do with me?”
“Take you to the outskirts of Silver Town. We’ll meet with Darien and Lelandi at their home out in the country to talk this over. For now, I want to know all about this, then you can ride with me in my car and Jake can take yours into town.”
“Then what? Lock me up? You can’t do that, because I’m a wolf too.”
“Newly turned or royal?”
“Royal.”
He smiled.
“Yeah, yeah, so my family has been wolves for generations, and we don’t have any trouble with shifting. You still can’t lock me up. If you tried to make up a story that I was tailing you, or pulled a gun on you and threatened to shoot you—”
“On my own property? We could charge you with trespassing, for starters.”
“As a bounty hunter, I have the power to enter your home and even effect an arrest. Since Jake’s married to a bounty hunter, he must know his wife can break into a home and arrest a suspect, when the cops can’t do that without a warrant.”
“True, but I’m not your suspect. And this business about a warrant? We run the town.”
Her eyes widened. “A wolf-run town?”
“Yep. From its inception. We have no problem incarcerating our own kind in the town jail. In your case, I don’t think you have to worry about it though.”
“The sheriff’s office is…is wolf-run?” She let out her breath. “You’re going to detain me?”
“You bet. You’re not calling other law enforcement officials to tell them to come pick me up. Like Jake said, we’ll help you find the right guy, but I’m not turning myself in and going to trial. Alicia became a bounty hunter to take down the men who killed her mother. How did you get involved in this line of work?”
She took a deep breath and let it out. “Okay, while we’re waiting on your cousin, I’ll tell you about us. My mom, Victoria St. James, is the bondswoman for the family company, but she was a bounty hunter before that. My dad, Logan, saw her on a case when he was an FBI agent. He fell in love with her, left the FBI, and got his bounty hunter accreditation so he could work for her family. By then, she was the bondswoman for the company. She hired him on the spot. Dad’s great at the job. They make a wonderful team. You know, I kind of imagined I might meet a wolf like that someday. It’s never happened.”
“Maybe looking for a wolf bounty hunter isn’t what you need. Maybe a potential suspect is more your style.”
She snorted. “Like you? I don’t go for the bad boys. I prefer taking them into custody.” She took another sip of her beer.
“I take it you wanted to follow in your father’s footsteps and trained to be a fugitive recovery agent.”
“Uh, no. Not exactly.” Jenna had seemed proud of her parents and what they were doing when she’d been talking about them, but her expression had darkened when Sarandon mentioned how she got into this business.
He hoped that didn’t mean she’d been forced into it and hated it. He didn’t even know her, yet he was ready to rescue her.
“I…had a mate.” She slipped some of her hair behind her ear. “And I was four months pregnant when the car my husband was driving was hit by a drunken driver. My husband died, and I lost the twins as a result of my injuries. A hit-and-run fifty years ago. Once I’d recovered physically, I was ready to take down the suspect. Emotionally, not so much though.”
“I’m so sorry, Jenna. Did they catch the bastard?”
“Later. Yes. He was caught and given bail for another hit-and-run DUI case before they realized he was the one who had killed my mate and my babies. Will and I had been mated for five months after a whirlwind romance of a month. And then suddenly, both he and my babies were gone. I’ll never forgive the man for taking them from me.” She frowned. “Having Cavendish run off to avoid standing trial was my reason for becoming a bounty hunter like my father. And my two sisters. We’re triplets, and while I was physically recovering from the accident, they immediately enrolled in
fugitive apprehension training.”
“And your mom was fine with it?”
Jenna shook her head. “Dad had to convince her that my sisters and I could do this. That it would be a family affair. Mom was worried it would be too dangerous, even though she’d been a bounty hunter earlier on. My sisters and I knew what was at stake, and we wanted to help. Since I completed my training and began working with my dad and sisters, I’ve always caught my man.”
“The wrong one this time.” Sarandon wondered if she’d ever picked up the wrong man before. “I hope the guy who hurt you is still in prison or died some time ago.”
“I don’t know. After my dad apprehended him, the perp stood trial, and a jury found him guilty, but he only received twelve years’ incarceration.”
“Hell. There’s no justice in that.”
“I agree.”
Jake entered the cabin and said, “Okay, what did I miss?”
“Grab us some beers. Jenna’s going to tell us what this is all about.” Sarandon wasn’t going to share the rest of what she’d told him. It wasn’t his secret to tell.
Jenna turned on her phone while Jake grabbed a beer for him and for Sarandon. She began looking at her screen. “Okay, so you were in Colorado Springs when you were caught with five different credit cards, three passports, and three different driver’s licenses.”
“And he said he was Sarandon Silver,” Sarandon ventured, ready to wring the man’s neck.
“Right. The guy had never been fingerprinted before, and if you’re not him but aren’t in the police database either, no connection would have been made.”
“So, he picked my name from one of his stolen identities. I’ve never been fingerprinted, so there’s no way to verify I’m not him—unless I go in and prove my fingerprints don’t match his.”
“Exactly! If my mother had sent one of the other agents to get the forms from him, she would have smelled his scent. When she smells yours, she’ll know you’re not him. If you’re not. I need to get ahold of her to learn if the forms were sent that way or if someone picked them up from the jail. Sarandon Silver is an unusual name. There isn’t another one that I could find like that anywhere. Not online. Not in our database that we use for running people down. The guy in Colorado Springs didn’t have any family or friends to speak of. He gave your address, which was verified by the driver’s license.
