Bounty Hunter- Mack

by Kim Fox

  Bounty Hunter: Mack

  The Clayton Rock Bounty Hunters of Redemption Creek Book Four

  Kim Fox

  Bounty Hunter: Mack

  The Clayton Rock Bounty Hunters of Redemption Creek

  Book Four

  By KIM FOX

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  Please respect the author’s hard work and purchase a copy. Thanks!

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Contains explicit love scenes and adult language.

  18+

  www.AuthorKimFox.com

  Copyright © 2019 by Kim Fox

  Contents

  Series Reading Order

  A note from Kim Fox

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  More from Kim Fox

  Series Reading Order

  Redemption Creek Reading Order

  The Grisly Grizzlies:

  Lachlan, Caleb, Kneecap, Tito and Ronin, Maximus, Box Set

  Bounty Hunter:

  Ryder, Grant, Logan, Mack

  Colwood Montana Reading Order

  Vega Brothers:

  Julius, Khan, Alexander, Hannibal, Box Set

  The Clawed Squad:

  Stetson, Royal, The Twins, Tyler, Thorn, Box Set

  The Wilde Crew:

  Rhett, Cole, Ashton, Rory, Box Set

  Colwood Firehouse:

  Zane, Gunner, Axel, Jax, Draven, Box Set

  A note from Kim Fox

  I just wanted to give you a quick heads up that this series should definitely be read in order! If you’d like to fully enjoy the story, please go back and start with Bounty Hunter: Ryder (links on the previous page).

  Also, I wanted to say a big thank you to my ARC team who are always a big mood lifter for me! Special thanks this time to Jammie and Scott! You guys rock!

  Okay, enjoy Mack…

  Chapter One

  Mack

  “What do you mean we’re out of options?”

  Mack clenched his thick jaw as his eyes narrowed on his alpha.

  “There’s got to be some lead to work with. There’s always another lead to work with. Another angle to take.”

  Grant sighed as he closed his laptop. “Not this time, Mack.”

  Mack’s chest felt heavier than ever as he stared at his alpha. How could this be the end?

  The two of them had been searching for Bryce for months. Bryce had disappeared near the end of the summer and it was already mid-November yet they were nowhere closer to finding out what happened to him.

  Grant and Mack had worked tirelessly trying to find any shred of info that would help them find the young lion shifter. They worked every contact they had, traveled to every location they could think of, but it always ended with the same thing… nothing.

  Back in September, Mack’s whole Bounty Hunter crew, with the exception of Logan, had even traveled to Northern Canada to try and find General Hunt’s secret military facility where the young shifter might have been. All they found was snow and frustration.

  And now, after all of this time, it seemed like Grant was giving up. They were sitting at the table in Grant’s kitchen with every paper, file, and note that had been meticulously combed through and analyzed a hundred times over laying in front of them. There was nothing left to look at.

  “I’m starting to think that there isn’t anything to look for,” Grant said with a wince.

  “What are you saying?”

  Grant took a deep breath, hesitating. “It was a high building.”

  “I know,” Mack snapped back. “I was there, remember? I was the one who kicked him off it.”

  Grant’s eyes softened as he shook his head. “It wasn’t your fault, Mack. I’ve told you that a thousand times. That skin shifter was trying to take over your lion.”

  “I should have been stronger. I should have been able to fight him off.”

  “You were strong! I’ve never seen an animal able to resist a skin shifter like that. It was incredible.”

  “Yeah,” Mack said with a dismissive snort. “A whole lot of good it did. I should have just leapt off the building and killed us both.”

  “Come on, Mack,” Grant said in a low voice.

  Mack shook his head as his body tensed. “At least Bryce would have been alive, and the world would have been purged of two bad guys.”

  “You’re not a bad guy.” Grant pushed the laptop away and leaned over the table. “You were completely out of it while you were fighting Caelum over control of your lion. Yeah, your lion kicked Bryce over the edge of the building, but it was an accident.”

  “You just said it yourself. I killed Bryce. That means I’m a bad person.”

  “Not everything is so cut and dry in this world, Mack. There are moral gray areas.”

  Mack shook his head as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I hurt Logan. I killed Bryce. There are no gray areas when it comes to that. There’s only black and white.”

  “You’re one of my best friends,” Grant said, staring at him in disbelief. “Do I look like the kind of guy who would be friends with a bad guy?”

  “Look around,” Mack snapped. “You, Ryder, Logan, you’re all in love. You all have someone. I’m forty-four. I’m older than all of you and I’ve never had a girl. I’ve never had someone to hold. I’ve never had someone love me. For years, I always thought that there must have been something wrong with me. When I kicked Bryce off that building, I finally knew for sure. It’s because I’m no good.”

  Mack lowered his head and cursed himself as Grant watched him.

  “Look at Amélie,” Grant finally said. “Is she a good person?”

  Mack liked Grant’s mate, the tough panther shifter. She had a good heart. “Yeah.”

  “But she worked for General Hunt,” Grant continued. “She fought and killed for him, but it was to protect her family. She’s still a good person. There are no moral absolutes in this life.”

  Mack looked back up at him with a hard, unflinching stare. “There are in mine.”

  He didn’t care what Grant had to say on the matter. There was nothing that was going to convince him otherwise. He knew what he had done.

  Back when Bryce first came onto the ranch to live with them, Mack couldn’t stand the little twerp. He was a young reckless lion—wild and stupid and constantly picking fights with the biggest shifters in Redemption Creek. Shifters like Kneecap and Mack who could have easily used the young cat as dental floss.

  There had been something about Mack that attracted the kid and for weeks, the little twerp had been following him around, annoying the shit out of him. He had latched onto Mack like a motherless baby duck imprinting on a poor sucker who now had to take care of him.

  Bryce drove Mack crazy i
n those early days. He asked a million questions, copied his every movement, and wouldn’t leave his side. Mack couldn’t turn around without bumping into the little twerp. And as many times as he yelled at him, threw something at him in frustration, threatened to knock his head off, or called him an annoying little twerp, Bryce wouldn’t leave him alone.

  Then one day, weeks after he had arrived on the ranch, Bryce went to the ranch next door to visit his sister, Abigail. Something strange happened on that day. Mack realized that he actually missed the little twerp. At first, he couldn’t believe it, laughing it off as ridiculous and insane, but the time alone he once loved so much suddenly felt different. It felt lonely.

  He sat on his porch, shaking his head in disbelief as he waited for Bryce to return. A few hours later, Caleb dropped off the kid and when Mack saw the little twerp waving and smiling at him as he hurried over, he knew, for better or for worse, that he had changed. He smiled as he listened to the young shifter tell him all about his day.

  From then on, he stopped fighting it. He stopped pushing Bryce away and instead took him under his wing and began teaching him everything he knew, from how to feed Sloth (it’s easy, you just dump a few giant bags of cat food into a pile and come check on it in a week), to how to grill a steak (it’s easy, you just burn the shit out of it until everyone complains), to how to make friends (you don’t. Who the hell wants friends???).

  They arm-wrestled as humans and hunted as lions. Mack began answering every one of Bryce’s questions, always answering them fully like he would to an adult. He didn’t have it in him to talk down to the sixteen-year-old kid. The little twerp was smart with a quick curious mind, and even though Mack would never admit it to the kid, he knew that Bryce would be much smarter than him one day. He had all the potential in the world and Mack felt a sense of pride as he watched him mature and grow with every day that passed.

  The world was unexplored and endlessly fascinating to Bryce and some of that rubbed off onto Mack. The old lion shifter found himself rediscovering the world around him that once seemed so dreary and bland. Bryce always asked him questions about his life, and Mack reminisced, telling him of the dangerous time when Redemption Creek was still run by the mob. Before the dragons came and cleaned it up. It was the first time that talking to another human was easy for Mack. Not only was it easy, but he enjoyed their talks and he looked forward to seeing the bright look in Bryce’s wide eyes whenever he began yet another story about the vicious shifter brawls and battles that took place while Grant, Ryder and him searched for their bounty.

  He asked about Mack’s youth and Mack told him stories of deprivation. About cold winters and having to hunt in his lion form because there was no food in the fridge. Stories about angry fathers and alcohol and wrathful lions. It soon occurred to Mack that this little twerp knew more about him than anyone else on earth.

  Nobody but Grant recognized the profound change in him, but Mack knew what watching over the kid had done to him. A vacuum had been filled. No longer was he stumbling through life, just waiting for it to end. Bryce had his whole life ahead of him and Mack was excited to be there alongside him, watching him develop, guiding his maturing mind and helping him become the great man that Mack knew he could be.

  Mack knew he was like a father figure to the little twerp and he took the role seriously. He was very protective of him and always watched over him, especially during fights. Nobody was going to hurt Bryce while Mack was around. He just never considered that Bryce might need to be protected from him.

  “I’m sorry to say this,” Grant said with a wince. “But I think we should start operating under the assumption that Bryce is… dead.”

  A painful tightness gripped Mack’s throat, threatening to suffocate him as he stared at his alpha. Grant was the most positive man that Mack had ever met. If he believed that Bryce was dead…

  He squeezed his eyes shut, holding onto the chair to stop the room from spinning. Tears burned through as he took long deep breaths to try and keep himself calm.

  When the quiver in his chin strengthened, he opened his eyes. “I won’t stop until I find them.”

  Grant raised his head, watching closely.

  “Hardy, Caelum, Irish, DeMarcus, General Hunt, his whole fucking army. I’m going to kill everyone who was involved. I won’t stop until their hearts are cold and their animals are dust.”

  This wasn’t about justice. It wasn’t about morality. This was pure revenge. They took someone precious to him and Mack was going to kill them for it.

  “Mack…” Grant reached over the table, but Mack just crossed his arms, leaning back in his chair. His eyes were as hard as his resolve. Every single last one of them was going to pay for what they did to his boy.

  And once they were all taken care of, he was going to take care of the person who was really responsible for it all.

  “I know you’re hurting, Mack,” Grant said in a low voice. “I am too, but—”

  “No buts this time, Grant,” he said as he stood up from the table. “That kid was the closest thing to a son that I’ll ever have. You’ve known me for ages. You know that me and people don’t mix. Then this kid comes into my life and suddenly the sun is a little brighter, the days a little sweeter. He loved me for Christ’s sake. Me! Of all people, he picked me.”

  Mack turned away as his chin trembled. He angrily wiped the tears from his eyes and turned back to his alpha with hard eyes.

  “Then those bastards made me… they made me…” He couldn’t even say the words. The horrible image of Bryce flying over the building, kicked by his own lion, was haunting. It haunted him in nightmares, it haunted him when he was awake. He just wanted it all to end.

  Grant just watched, not saying a word. He knew Mack too well to think he could change his mind.

  “I need some air.” Mack walked outside and took a deep breath of the damp autumn air as he looked around. The weather matched his mood. It was gray and dreary. A dank autumn day where the clouds wept, destroying the vibrant colors of the trees and turning them grim and lifeless.

  The rhythmic whack of an ax splitting logs echoed through the ranch. Ryder was chopping the wet wood in the distance, preparing for the long cold winter ahead. Tempest was beside him, laughing at something he said.

  The laughter raked through Mack like nails on a chalkboard. He stepped forward and gripped the railing of Grant’s balcony, squeezing the wet soft wood until he could feel his fingertips digging in. He closed his eyes and withdrew inward, shutting out the laughter, shutting out the somber day.

  If only I could go back and change what happened…

  He dipped his chin to his chest as his lion stirred within.

  I don’t want to hear it! He was snapping more and more at his lion. The animal he once loved and nurtured was now nothing more than a burden. A reminder of the sin that was slowly consuming him.

  His lion whimpered as he slunk back down within. Mack knew the cat felt remorse and pain as well. He could feel the guilt and shame radiating off him. He knew how much his lion had loved Bryce’s. He knew, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

  If only he had been stronger…

  “What up, Mack!”

  Mack sighed as he opened his eyes, jerking back to reality. Logan was approaching with the mail in his hand. His dark hair and shirt were wet from the light rain, but he didn’t seem to mind. Nothing seemed to be bothering Logan these days.

  Mack’s eyes darted to Logan’s missing left arm, another casualty of Mack’s weakness.

  “Look at this,” Logan said with a laugh as he held up the envelopes in his hand. “Remember when it took a pickup truck to bring the mail in?”

  Mack remembered. The mailman had biceps the size of boulders from lugging around all of those thick overdue bills with Urgent, Past Due, and Final Warning printed all over them in large red block letters. Now that Logan and Elodie had paid off all of the ranch’s debts, they were getting nothing but junk mail.

  “I’ll n
ever get tired of this,” Logan said proudly as he walked up the steps to the balcony. He dropped the envelopes on the table and started going through them. “Flyer from a dentist, a trashy magazine for Tempest, parking tickets for Grant, coupons for fast food, and look at that. No bills.”

  “Wait a minute,” Mack said, grabbing the envelope for Grant. “Parking tickets? For what car?”

  He ripped the envelope opened and yanked out the paper. His heart started pounding when he saw the name of the county in the top corner: Rakesville, Washington. Where the hell is that?

  The date of the parking ticket was only two weeks ago. His pulse raced as he searched the paper for the truck. Sure enough, it was exactly what he was hoping for.

  “What is it?” Logan asked as Mack burst back into Grant’s cabin.

  “Grant!” Mack shouted. “Look at this!”

  He slammed the paper down in front of him. Grant’s eyes widened as he looked over the paper.

  They had been searching for a polar bear shifter named Grease for months. The enhanced shifter had escaped from General Hunt’s secret facility and knew exactly where it was located. The only problem was, they hadn’t seen or heard from him since the summer when Grant generously gave him his truck to help him escape.