Walker (Bowen Boys) (17 page)

She looked over at Walker and back at
Khan. He seemed to be serious. “Fuck off, buddy. I didn’t swear to the president;
I’m not going to do you either.” Walker laughed and she decided that shooting
him was too easy. He was going to die by bleeding to death as she pulled his
hairs out one follicle at a time.

“I told you this was a waste of time.
Why you changed her is beyond me.”

Khan stomped out of the room and she
looked at Walker. Changed her? “If you don’t explain to me what the fuck that
meant, I will shoot you on principle.”

He grinned at her.

“I mean it, talk to me.”

“I accidentally converted you.”

She looked around the room and back at him.

“You’re now like me, well, like us.”

“I’m assuming you don’t mean you’ve
converted me to some religious cult or something.” He shook his head.
“Converted me to what?”

“Panther. When I bit you and you me it
started the change in you. It wasn’t something I planned and I certainly hadn’t
meant for it to happen, but my cat took over and when you—” She raised her hand
and he stopped talking.

She put the gun on the table. She wasn’t
sure she wouldn’t use it on him right now and she wanted answers. Pacing helped,
but didn’t get her any closer to understanding what he was talking about.
“Explain to me what exactly that means for me being a panther.” She stopped him
again when he took a deep breath. “In quick, easy terms. I don’t think I can
handle a long, drawn out explanation right now.”

“I let my cat bite you for him to mark
you. You bit me too. During the exchange, he tore at you and made a deeper
wound than he should have. His essence filled you and he changed you. We
changed you.”

“He’s not a part of you?”

He nodded his head and she frowned.

“Then how is it that he changed me and
not you? You blaming him for something that you did?”

“No. I didn’t mean it…I wanted you to be
converted, but didn’t want to take the chance that you’d die. Only about one or
two percent of humans can handle it. It’s painful and a long process. Most
humans die within hours of the initial bite.”

“But I didn’t.” When he shook his head
she paced some more. “Can I change into a panther?”

“I don’t know. Like I said, very few
humans live—”

“Could you please stop calling us
humans? I’m a little overwhelmed right now and I’m trying my best not to kill
you. Call it…I don’t know, call us people.”

“But you’re not human any longer.”

That stopped her in her tracks. She
turned to look at him and he shrugged.

“And you can’t hurt me either. Not now. It’ll
be in your DNA.”

“That you know, but you haven’t a clue
if I can change.” She picked up the gun and pointed it at him. He was right,
she couldn’t do it. Tossing it back on the dresser, she stalked around the room
again. “So your cat changed me into something you don’t know about, and you have
no clue what I can do, and aren’t even sure that in a few hours I might not keel
over and die. Just great. Anything else you’ve neglected to tell me?” He grinned
at her and she glared back. “What?”

“The president is downstairs in our
living room. And he’s not human either.”

She sat down hard. It might not have
hurt so badly if there had been a chair or even the bed behind her, but she hit
the floor.

“What is he?” She spoke softly, but knew
that he could hear her. “What is he if not human? A panther?”

“Weretiger. And his aide is too. Mr.
David is a yellow Bengal and the president is a white Bengal. They both have
come to help and run on the property.” Walker stood up and moved toward her
slowly. “They want to talk to you. They’ve been waiting for over an hour.”

She didn’t reach for his hand, but
stared at it. He hunkered down to look her in the eye and she felt a
connection. It snapped into place like a rubber band to the wrist.

“You and I are a mated couple. We’ll be
able to speak like this over long distances no matter where you are. Try and
talk to me with your mind, love.”

She shook her head.

“You have to try. You might need me, or
I you, and if it doesn’t work both ways we won’t be able to help one another.”

“I’m a little…okay, I’m fucking
overwhelmed right now. Not about the changing stuff, though I’m still having
issues with that one, but the president? And Marshall?”
She looked
toward the door where Khan had gone.
“And he wants me to pledge myself to
him? Why? So he can pretend to protect me? I’m not sure he’d do that even if I
pledged to have his baby.”

His growl made her smile.
“According
to law, anyone new to the family has to make sure they are pledged to us. That
way we can hear each other’s thoughts. Not the ones you and I have, but when
we’re a group.”
She started to ask him if they were a pack when he answered
it for her
. “Panthers are called groups, not packs. Wolves run in packs, not
us. There are different names for each of the species of cat. We’re simply
called a group or, with us, a family.”

She let him pull her up off the floor
and they moved toward the door. “Will Warren be able to hear us speaking? I
mean as a group?”

“No. He’s something entirely different
than us. He will be able to hear other tigers so long as they’re Bengals.”

They hit the last stair and she turned
to him. “You have to trust me.”

He nodded.

“I mean it. No matter what, you have to
trust me that I know what I’m doing. I’m trained in this. Promise me.”

He kissed her and then nodded again. “I
promise to trust you in all things that you do concerning your work and job. But
the rest…we’ll have to work on that one. Is that enough?”

It was and she told him so. Pulling away
from him, she entered the large living room and accounted for everyone in the
room. The only person who wasn’t present was Khan, but she didn’t really care
at the moment.

~~~

Warren stood when she entered. She was
as beautiful as ever. Before he could tell her how happy he was to see her she
stopped, turned slightly, and came around in a roundhouse punch that took him
to the floor and a few feet away. Marshall stood up and, before he could move,
she had a gun plastered to his forehead.

“Move and I will blow what little brains
you have in that thick skull of yours all over the nice books behind you.”

He wasn’t sure if she was talking to him
or Marshall, but neither of them moved.

“Now, we’re going to have a little talk
about truth and lies. Like the one you told me before I started working for you
when Melvin was murdered.”

“I never actually lied to you, Lynne. I
simply didn’t disclose everything.” She pulled out a second gun and pointed at
him as he continued. “Okay, maybe that was lying to you, but I didn’t want you
to be…”

“Be what? Afraid? Turn away from you? You
moron, you should have told me. You should have trusted me as I did you.” She
glanced to her right when one of the people on the couch moved. “He’ll be dead
before you get to me. Sit down.”

 Warren looked over at the young man
he’d been introduced to as Reed. The boy looked pissed and he didn’t blame him,
but Warren knew that she would shoot him if someone interceded on his part. She
was very hot tempered when she wanted to be. “Lynne, this is getting us no
closer to getting this family safe. Can’t we just sit down and talk this over? I
swear to you that I will never lie to you, neither by omission nor by lies.” She
looked at Marshall who looked ready to attack her. He reached out for the man
and begged him not to let her kill him. The quick glance his way made him think
that Marshall was going to make him pay for this.

“Right now, we’re on a short fuse. You
fuck me over and I will murder you both. I’m fucking sick of all this bullshit
and you both are well aware of what I’ve done to keep you both safe.” He nodded
and stood up. Marshall didn’t move when she took the gun off him and when she
put out her hand to him, he was sure the man wasn’t going to take it.

“I’m pissed at you.”

She nodded at Marshall’s bald statement.

“You could have hurt him. Hurting him is
not an option.”

“I’m well aware of what I did. And I’m
well aware of the consequences of my actions.” She stepped closer to him and
lowered her voice. “I’m not your average agent.”

Walker burst out laughing. Warren hadn’t
realized that the man hadn’t moved when she was handling them. He looked back
at Lynne, then the young man. They were a couple. But he decided that
congratulating them now might still get him shot. Before anyone could sit down and
begin again a cell phone sounded and Mrs. Bowen answered. He knew immediately
that something was wrong.

She paled and looked at Lynne. Before
the elderly woman could stand, Lynne was kneeling in front of her taking the
phone. She looked over at him and nodded. Christ, it was bad when she looked
like that.

He watched her move. She was water in
motion when she was working, and he put his hand in front of Marshall when he
looked to be going to help her. Her end of the conversation was full of humor,
smart-assed replies. It was what she was doing that had him wishing he had a
camera to show others what a real agent was supposed to do.

The laptop was on the small table in
front of her. She continued speaking and hooking the phone up to it. When the
cursor started zooming across the screen and clicking on icons he had no idea
what she was doing. When Reed leaned over to him, the man explained.

“She’s tracking the number. He doesn’t
think she can because it’s not her phone. She showed us that gizmo a couple of
days ago. She said that she can track a phone on that program that most big
leaguers can’t.” He listened to her for a few seconds before grinning. “She
does have a colorful way of putting things, doesn’t she?”

Warren nodded. He wasn’t altogether sure
about some of the names she was calling the person on the other end, but he was
reasonably sure it was keeping him on the line to insult her back. It seemed to
be working and when the computer beeped once and pulled up a map, Warren
watched as it flashed up an address. She had him.

When she handed the phone back to Mrs.
Bowen, she held her hand. “I will get him back for you. I swear to you I will.

“Get who back from whom? And if you
think you’re leaving this house without me, then you can rethink that right
fucking now.” Walker reached for her and pulled her into his arms. “Tell me. Tell
me what’s going on before I have a shit fit.”

“They have Khan. They don’t know who he
is; well, that’s not true. They think he’s you. They think they have my lover
and that I will come along nicely to save him.” She glanced over at him as she
continued. “Do you remember Seth Clarke and Norris Freeman?”

“Yes. They’ve been on the FBI’s most
wanted for nearly ten years. Christ, they don’t have him, do they?” She nodded
and he had to sit down. He had to think. Those two men were lethal when apart;
together, they were a nightmare.

“I’ll get him. They don’t know it yet,
but they’re both dead.” She pointed to the computer screen. “They are working
with Small.”

He shook his head. “Can’t be. I had him
tossed just yesterday. There isn’t any way for him to contact anyone now. I
even had him moved to another cell. There’s no way he could have contacted
them.” She smiled and he knew he had missed something.

“As standard policy you had him moved to
the next cell. Right next to the one he had before so he can see what he no
longer has.”

He nodded slowly.

“He had it planted there. That’s what I
would have done. And for the record, they said that Garrett contacted them. But
they said they’d been in contact with someone that would make you disappear
soon enough. Only one with a hard-on to do that would be Small.”

“Mother fuck.”

He couldn’t have agreed more with
Marshall.

“Now what do we do? What’s the plan?”

“My plan is to go in and get Khan and bring
him back here.” Warren started to speak, but she stopped him with her raised
hand. “You can’t go in and you know why. If you’re hurt, how will you explain
to anyone why you were here?”

“You’ll need backup. Who can I trust to
help you?” Warren wasn’t surprised to see Walker raise his hand. But the
others, including the older couple doing so, did. He looked over at Marshall
who had as well.

“See, instant backup.” Lynne looked at
Mr. and Mrs. Bowen. “You two need to stay here. And before you argue, let me
explain. I’ll need someone to come and get anyone who’s hurt and bring them
back. I’m guessing that, once this hits the fan, there will be people all over
this. Someone needs to carry out the wounded.”

“You think that’s going to happen?” Walker
looked terrified and Warren didn’t blame the man. “You think that someone is
going to get killed?”

“Not if I can help it.” She looked at
Marshall. “I need you to give me an hour before you call in the troops. You’ll
need to take care of Small too. His cell will need to be put into lockdown and
the service cut off or he needs to be put into another place.”