Authors: Lynn Hagen
Willow was throwing a fit even as Clyde, the werebear alpha, was helping Trisha and Peanut into his truck.
“I don’t even know them!” Willow shouted in Deluca’s face. “How do I know I’m not sending them to their deaths? Why aren’t they at least going with the others to Edward and Isabelle’s?”
Deluca made sure the last of their rescues were loaded into a van and taken away. Phillip and Frisk were headed to where Edward was hiding out with Isabelle. They weren’t sure what to do with Remus, the wereleopard changeling, so Rick had told him to go with Phillip and Frisk.
With Isabelle expecting, the mated couple could use all the reinforcements they could get.
“Because,” Deluca said as he tried his best to explain to Willow the plan once more, “Edward is still getting used to his life as a vampire. I don’t need the kids around him if he decides he can’t handle bagged blood.”
“Oh, but his pregnant mate is okay being around him?”
“She can handle herself.”
As much as it hurt for Deluca to say the words, it was the only way he knew how to calm her down. “Then go with them. Clyde has a mate and newborn son. Rick gave me his word of honor that they would be safe and well cared for.”
“Why can’t they stay with us?” Willow argued. “Why do we have to send them away?”
“Because,” Brooke intervened, “we can’t go traipsing into the mountains with a toddler and teenager. Hell, it isn’t safe for you to go, but you know the lay of the land. We can cover more ground and find Kell faster if it is just the three of us.”
“No.” Willow shook her head, and Deluca could see the unshed tears building in her pretty green eyes. He pulled her into his arms, cupping her face and trying his damnedest to let her know she wasn’t alone in this. He could feel the fine tremors of her body under his hands, and he hated to see her like this. She had already been through too much, but they weren’t going to put the kids through hell if they didn’t have to.
Howard and Lillian had argued adamantly about staying behind and helping, but Deluca agreed with Rick. They were safer with Edward. Lillian was affected by her capture, whether she wanted to admit it or not. Howard told Rick that she had balled up into a corner half the night and wouldn’t talk to him. She needed to get away from the front lines. Howard needed to help her deal with what had happened to her. She wasn’t going to heal while fighting a war.
“They won’t be lost to you, Willow. I swear to you on my life they will be safe, but we can’t do this with kids to worry about.”
Willow pulled away from Deluca, scowling at him with contempt. “I’ll always worry about them. They are my responsibility, and I won’t have them taken from me.”
Deluca was at a loss of what to do. There was no way he was taking the two children into what could still be hostile territory. He didn’t like the idea of Willow going, but Brooke had a point. She knew the land. It would make things a hell of a lot easier if they had her as a guide. The first time they were there, Garrett had been guiding them. If shit got funky and they needed to take a different route for escape, it could mean the difference between life and death if they had someone who knew where they were going.
But he refused to have three people to look out for while trying to hunt down an infant. Rick had told him that Clyde could be trusted. Deluca was placing his future in the werebear’s hands. He knew it had to be hard as hell for Willow to do the same.
She was handing over the two people who meant the world to her to a total stranger, and all she had was Deluca and Brooke’s word that they would be safe. He could see the struggle in Willow’s eyes and knew she was fighting inside her own mind on what she should do.
“I don’t want them in the middle of this fight,” Willow murmured as she paced the sidewalk outside their motel room. “But I don’t want to just hand them off to strangers.”
“Then we’ll go,” Benito said. “Miguel and I will go with Peanut and Trisha to keep them safe.”
“Are you sure?” Rick asked.
“Everyone is leaving,” Miguel pointed out. “We need to go where we’re needed. You have Mason, Freedman, Omar, and Dorian. What do you need two juveniles hanging around for?”
“You know it’s not like that,” Rick growled. “You are always welcome to go wherever I go.”
Miguel nodded. “But right now Willow needs to concentrate on finding her son. The war isn’t going to go away, and Garrett has been arrested. They don’t need two kids to take care of while hunting the pup down.”
The man was speaking Deluca’s exact thoughts. He watched as Benito walked up to Rick, hesitated, and then hugged the man. “As soon as they find the pup, we’ll come back, I promise.”
“You better,” Dorian said. “I need my bodyguards.”
Deluca wasn’t sure what that was all about, but felt a measure of relief when he saw Willow look as if she would agree to the two juveniles going with Peanut and Trisha. Willow still looked as if she wanted to argue, but her face wasn’t filled with such grief and pain any longer.
When Benito released Rick, he pulled Willow into his arms. She looked shocked but let the man hug her.
“I promise nothing will happen to Peanut or Trisha. Miguel and I will protect them with our lives.”
“They mean the world to me, Benito,” Willow said as she ran a hand over his head. She was at least three inches taller than the juvenile, which made her look like she was comforting a teenager instead of a grown man.
“I know,” Benito said. “But the two have come to feel like family in such a short amount of time. I promise to keep them safe.”
Willow glanced at Deluca, and then Brooke, her expression torn. Finally she nodded. Deluca could see the resignation in her face. She patted Benito on his shoulder. “I’m going to hold you to your word.”
Deluca was relieved. They didn’t have time to stand here and convince Willow it was the right thing to do. They needed to get moving, and so did Rick and his group. No one was safe staying in one place for too long. Even though they were splitting up, Deluca knew they would never be safe as long as they had Willow with them. She was changeling, and the government wanted her captured or destroyed.
Neither was acceptable to Deluca.
Willow walked to the truck and said her good-byes as Deluca turned to Rick. “We’ll keep in touch. If you need us, just call. Do you still have that satellite phone I gave you?”
Rick held it up, smiling. “And I still can’t seem to win the damn games on it.”
Deluca chuckled. “I told you not to play the games. You’ll drain the battery.” He gave Rick a handshake and then looked over at Freedman. He was talking with Brooke. Deluca joined them.
“I’ll keep Enrique safe.”
“Call him Rick,” Brooke said. “He really is a good guy. You couldn’t have picked a better man to look out for.”
“We’ll see,” Freedman replied. “I risked not only my career, but my life to keep him and the others safe. I just hope it was all worth it.”
When Clyde’s truck pulled away, Deluca met Willow on the side of the building, pulling her into his arms. “They’ll be safe, hon.”
“Let’s get this done so I can be with them again.” There was a steel edge to Willow’s voice as she pulled from Deluca’s arms and headed toward the Humvee. Deluca had to admit, he liked this fierce side to Willow. It was a damn turn-on. He waved to Rick, Dorian, Mason, Omar, and Freedman as Deluca and Brooke slid into the truck.
“We have to stay off of the main road. The cops around here will probably be conducting road blocks to check the vehicles for nonhumans. It’ll take us a little longer to get back to the mountains, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
“We should start with Garrett’s home. He was meticulous about keeping records,” Willow said from the backseat. “I’m pretty sure he kept records of who has Kell.”
“Are you okay, sugar?” Brooke asked from the front seat.
Willow pushed back the mane of red hair from her face and nodded, but she wasn’t looking at either of them. She was staring out of the window. Deluca left her to her thoughts. If working things out in her mind helped alleviate the anxiety of giving Peanut and Trisha over to Clyde, then Deluca could do nothing but allow her the time.
They had a long journey ahead of them and too much time to think. He didn’t want her worrying, but he knew there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to comfort her until she was back with her kids.
Correction.
Their
kids.
* * * *
Brooke felt like his nerves were being stretched thin. They had driven straight through and had hiked deep into the mountains. Although Brooke and Deluca were used to little to no sleep, they could tell that Willow was not. She looked like she was about to fall over at any minute. She may be werecoyote, but Brooke knew she hadn’t been used to running for hours on end. He wanted to stop and rest, but Deluca insisted they search the compound and get out of there before nightfall.
Brooke knew there could be some werecoyotes who had returned to their homes, praying the small village wasn’t swept again by the humans. But Brooke was also military. He knew the strategy. Whoever performed the mass arrest the first time would be back in a few days to look for those who were foolish enough to come back.
He didn’t want them to be there when the cleanup crew infiltrated these woods.
Brooke felt a hand grab his upper arm and knew it was Willow’s. He reached behind him and threaded their fingers together as they hurried along. “Not much further, sweetheart.”
She gave him a cynical look but didn’t pull her hand free. “I am well aware of how far it is. And yes, it is.”
Brooke grinned as he squeezed her delicate fingers, but kept moving forward.
“I just wish I could get out of this skirt. It is not a smart choice when running through the forest.”
“As much as I would love to see you out of that skirt, I don’t think running through the forest naked will help me concentrate.” Willow glared at him, and Brooke chuckled. “You can get some clothes from your home when we get there. Pack light though. Whatever fits into a backpack will have to do.”
Why did the compound seem further away now that they were racing toward it? When Garrett had tricked them into following him, it seemed so much closer. Brooke worried that Willow wouldn’t be able to keep up much longer, but so far she hadn’t slowed them down or asked them to stop. He knew as soon as they were done here, that he and Deluca would take her someplace safe and let her rest.
Until then, they had to keep moving.
He was proud of the determined way her shoulders were set as she ran next to him. Brooke knew Willow wasn’t a fighter, even though she was classified as a predatory breed. He imagined her at home, barefoot and carrying his and Deluca’s child. Some might think that was a sexist thought, but Brooke thought it was a beautiful image. He could just imagine the glow of her pale and creamy skin as she worked around the house.
If times weren’t so uncertain and that contentment could become a reality, Brooke would be the happiest man on earth.
“We’re close,” Willow said an hour later. Her voice was ragged, as if she were trying to pull in enough air. Brooke pulled her closer as they slowed, Deluca quickly taking up a position in front of her.
“Which dwelling is Garrett’s?” Deluca asked.
Willow pointed skyward to a loft set apart from the rest. Brooke and Deluca scouted the area and then came back for Willow. They hurried her up the stairs until they were on the moss-covered porch and standing in the living room.
“Well, damn,” Brooke said as he looked around. “The man believed in his comforts.” For a loft up in the trees, this place was swank. Hell, Brooke wouldn’t mind living here himself if he didn’t already own his own small ranch-style home back in Louisiana. Garrett’s home was decked out for not having any electricity.
“Yeah, while the rest of us lived modestly, the alpha made sure he was as comfortable as his evil ass could be,” Willow replied. “The bedroom is this way.”
Brooke hated that Willow knew where Garrett’s bedroom was located. It only served to remind him why they were here. The alpha may have been a werecoyote who enjoyed his comforts, but he was also a man who enjoyed tricking sweet young women into his bed. It still pissed Brooke off to no end to think about how Garrett had hurt Willow, and it still baffled him how anyone could treat the mother of their child so heinously.
God, thinking about Garrett being the mother of Willow’s child made Brooke want to shoot something. He placed a hand on the small of her back and pulled her close, giving her cheek a light kiss. “We’ll be out of here as soon as we search the place.”
Willow nodded, her face visibly relaxing when Deluca pressed his chest into her back.
“If it’s too much to be here, I can take you to your loft to get your things while Brooke searches,” Deluca offered.
Willow placed her hands on Brooke’s chest, staring up at him, and he could tell she didn’t want to seem like a coward. Brooke couldn’t blame her for not wanting to be in Garrett’s home. The place wasn’t filled with good memories for her. If he could, Brooke would wipe those memories from her mind and replace them with newer, more pleasurable ones. But they didn’t have time for anything Brooke had in mind. “Why don’t you go ahead and take her? It’ll save us time.”
Deluca placed his hand in Willow’s and pulled on it. “Let’s go, sweetheart. You have some packing to do. We need to get you out of that skirt.”
Brooke heard the innuendo in Deluca’s voice. He knew his friend for too damn long and knew what the guy had in mind.
“Keep your clothes on, Deluca. We can’t afford to be caught off guard. Just help her pack and then get your ass back here, pronto.”
Deluca gave him a boyish grin that the man constantly used on the ladies, and Brooke rolled his eyes. The man was hopeless. Deluca would have sex twenty-four seven if he could.
As soon as the two left, Brooke began to search the bedroom. He ignored the oversized bed. If he thought of Garrett taking—
no, eye on the prize
. He was here to look for papers, not set this place on fire.
Though the temptation was great.
Brooke searched the dresser drawers and anywhere else he thought papers could be hidden, but hadn’t come up with anything to help them find Kell. If Garrett didn’t have a paper trail on the infant, Brooke wasn’t sure where they were going to look.
As he moved to step out of the room, a floorboard squeaked right under his boot. Brooke looked down. He moved his foot out of the way, knelt, and pried the floorboard loose.
Bingo
.
Brooke pulled a cache of papers from the hidden compartment. There was more than one envelope, and he grabbed them all. He wasn’t sure what he would find, but something told Brooke that Garrett had quite a few shady dealings going on. The man seemed like the type to bribe and kill to get what he wanted.
He walked from the room, because he couldn’t stand seeing the bed, and dropped the envelopes on the counter. All were marked confidential.
He just bet they were.
Pulling the papers from the first package, Brooke scanned over them to find that Garrett owned some land in South Dakota. Once this war was over, Brooke was going to make sure that land went to the werecoyotes who had suffered under the man’s ruling.
He set that envelope aside and then pulled the papers from the next one. Brooke had to read it twice to make sure he was seeing what he was reading. There was no other way to interpret the papers other than blackmail. Garrett was blackmailing a man named Sasha Monroe. If the wereleopard didn’t hand over Enrique Marcelo’s account information and financial portfolio, the shit was going to hit the fan. Enrique Fernando Marcelo’s birth certificate was among the papers in Brooke’s hand. He wasn’t sure of the significance though. The papers stated that if Sasha didn’t come through for him, then Garrett would let the changeling world know Sasha was a half breed. According to the papers, the ancient laws state that no half breed shall hold title as alpha, own property in the territory where their pack resides, or become anything other than a juvenile. They shall not mate and reproduce more half breeds, nor shall they be included in any reindeer games.
Okay, so Brooke made the last part up because the ancient law was stupid as fuck to him, but apparently being a mutt in the changeling world was a very bad thing.
Brooke tucked those papers away. He was pretty sure Rick would love to have them. He wasn’t sure why Rick’s birth certificate was so damn important, but that wasn’t any of Brooke’s business.
The next envelope was what Brooke had been searching for. He read over the papers and then tucked them away, heading for the door. They had a lead, and if they were lucky, Kell would still be in the orphanage located in Indiana.
He hurried from Garrett’s and glanced around. He hadn’t a clue which loft was Willow’s. Brooke hadn’t thought to ask.
When he saw two men quietly heading up a staircase, Brooke had his gun out, aiming at the one about to walk through the door. His instincts told him they were after Willow and Deluca, and Brooke was fucking tired of the woman he had fallen in love with being threatened.