“You can’t run away from me, you piece of shit! You were gonna let them KILL me! I’m gonna kick you ’til you’re fucking DEAD!”
He’d reached the edge of the woods, but he was already slowing. A drinker and a smoker, Wayne never exercised. Running flat-out for more than ninety seconds would kill him. She had plenty of time to stop and check the clip.
Shit. Only one bullet left.
She planted her feet, took her time and fired.
The bullet struck the ground by Wayne’s foot, sending up a cloud of grass and gravel all around him.
Wayne squealed and fell down.
Sara roared and kicked his ass.
And his gut, and his shoulder, and his back, and any other spots she could reach as he rolled on the ground with his arms wrapped around his head, bawling for mercy.
“
Ow
! Stop! Please don’t—oof—oh— Please!
Goddamn it
, Sara, stop, I’ll—”
“You bastard!”
Kick. “
You dirty rotten fucking asshole! You let them kill your mother!”
Kick.
“You sold me to those sick fucks!”
Kick.
“You shot TJ!”
Kick kick.
“I hated—”
kick
“—every fucking—”
kick
“—minute I spent”
kick
“—doing shit for you!”
“Help!
Aaaagh!
”
“What the hell is going on over there?”
Bryan shook his head, transfixed by the scene.
He’d come tearing around the bend in the road, certain he’d see her dead or dying. Instead, he’d stumbled to a shocked and sudden halt at the sight of Sara kicking the ever living shit out of Wayne Hedges. She was waving a gun in one hand, and in the other…
“What’s that dangling from the cuff?” Taran whispered.
He felt a huge smile break across his face. “I think— I think it’s the handle off a glove compartment.”
“Come on. We have stop her before she kills him.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Pride and relief and joy washed over him. Why did it take something like this for him to figure things out? “Fuck it,” he muttered as he ran to her. “We’ll adopt.”
“No one can hear you, asshole!”
Kick.
Kick. KICK.
“That’s enough, angel. You can’t kill him ’til the Feds have talked to him.”
“You think anyone cares what happens to you?”
Ki
… “Huh? What?”
Strong arms—familiar, safe, beloved arms—grasped her around the waist and hoisted her up. Now her legs were kicking empty air.
Bryan buried his face in the back of her neck. Although she couldn’t be sure, she thought he was laughing.
Taran appeared behind Bryan. He bent down and with one hand hauled Wayne to his feet.
Bryan set her down. She turned around and collapsed into his arms and he cupped her face in his hands to gaze at her. His joy turned to fury in an instant.
“Your eye, your— Your nose. He hurt you! The bastard broke your nose! I’ll kill him!”
She flinched and pulled away from him as she suddenly smelled something weird, something musky and almost overpowering.
Moving faster than she’d ever seen any living thing move, Taran grabbed the back of Bryan’s neck with his free hand, lifting him an inch off the ground.
“You will
not
get furry on me, wolf. Keep your shit together ’til this asshole’s locked up and we’re out of here, then you can stay four-footed as long as you like. Sara, hold on to him. Calm him down. Wait. Hold out your hand. No, the left— There you go.”
He let go of both Wayne and Bryan—Wayne, still sobbing and gibbering, promptly collapsed into a wailing puddle again—and with a flick of his wrists snapped the cuff in two.
Taran stood watching her as she moaned with relief, rubbing at her chafed wrist.
“You know, you’re as badass as TJ,” he said with a small smile. “Just don’t tell TJ I called her a badass.”
“She’s okay? She’s not— She’s not…”
“She’s fine,” Bryan answered. “I mean, she will be. She’ll recover.”
He explained how TJ had managed to crawl to a phone and call for help.
“Wow. That’s incredible.”
“So are you,” Bryan said quietly, unmistakable pride in his voice.
“All right, I think we’re done here,” Taran broke in. “I’ll send one of the Feds to pick y’all up at the house. See you back in town.” As he shoved Wayne into the back seat, he said over his shoulder, “I think she’s your girlfriend, B.”
Taran drove away as Bryan pulled her into a tight embrace. She gave a small gasp of pain when her nose pressed into his chest, but then she wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her cheek against his heart. She hugged him with all the strength she had left.
“Your nose,” he murmured in a weirdly shaky growl. “He broke your nose.”
“I’m okay. I promise. He didn’t really hurt me. I punched myself in the eye. I’ll be fine.”
He shook in her arms as she whispered slow, soft words of comfort. Gradually he stilled. The strange, pungent smell dissipated.
“Oh, Sara. Oh God. I thought you were dead. I thought—”
“Yeah, me too. But I’m all right now. You got here in time.”
His chest rumbled with laughter against her ear. “No I didn’t! You did it all yourself! You kicked his ass but
good
, angel.”
“I did, didn’t I?” Now that it was over and she’d calmed down, she was a tiny bit awed with herself. “It’s weird. I knew I was strong, but I never knew I could move so fast.”
“Yeah, well,” he murmured, “I never knew I could fall so fast.”
She caught her breath at that. “What are you talking about?”
He rested his forehead gingerly against hers, careful that their noses didn’t touch. “I’m talking about how I didn’t know I could fall in love so quick. I can’t believe I thought I could do my job and leave Luxor without ever seeing you again. I’m such a dumbass,” he muttered.
“You don’t have to say you love me, you know.”
“You have to say
you
love
me,
or my life’s going to suck for a long time
.
” He cupped her face in his hands and gave her a soft, slow kiss. “Well? Do you?”
“Yeah, I do. Of course I do,” she whispered.
“Thank God. Okay, come on. Let’s get back to your grandmother’s house and wait for a ride. We need to set your nose, and I want to get you out of this place as soon as we can.”
He took her hand, and they started up the gravel road.
“Bryan?”
“What?”
“Have you seen my car?”
Chapter Twelve
“So you’re definitely,
definitely
certain the FBI won’t come after you?” asked Wendy.
“That’s what Nick says. Bryan talked to him last night and he said everything’s been taken care of.”
“I can’t believe you call the Houston Alpha by his first name.”
Taran passed through the tiny living room with another armload of boxes.
“Are all werewolves as hot as those two?” Wendy whispered.
“No,” Taran said without a trace of a smile. “We’re way hotter than most of ’em. But we all have really good hearing.”
Wendy blushed ten shades of red.
She and Taran and Bryan had kept their presence in Luxor as quiet as possible. Bud Rice and his deputy didn’t want anyone to know werewolves were in town. Besides the possibility of a riot, the two cops didn’t want the whole town to know they’d almost done business with a gang of them—even though most everybody, including the ones who’d sat next to Grandma in church three times a week, knew about the Hedges family business and the bribes Wayne had paid.
Sara wouldn’t miss small-town hypocrisies. Big towns had plenty of hypocrites, but the shopping was better and you had more places to eat.
She’d told Wendy everything. Her cousin’s eyes had filled with tears when Sara described the years she’d spent terrified of people learning about her fae blood.
“I can’t believe you had to live with that all those years. What kind of bitch am I if my own cousin couldn’t trust me with something so important? I’m so glad you’re getting out of this craphole! I’m gonna miss you so bad I can’t stand it, but at least I know you’re not dead.”
Then they’d cried some more, and now they sat on the floor of Sara’s apartment as Taran loaded the last of her meager belongings into a small U-Haul. Another friend was taking over her lease.
“Are you sure you don’t want to take any of your furniture?”
“Greta needs it more than I do. I’m gonna raid the Tupperware money and buy some more. I’ve never had new furniture.”
“Why don’t you just move in with Bryan?”
“He asked me to, but I think it’s better if we take things slow. I need time to adjust, get back on my feet. I’ll find a place close to his condo.”
“But, Sara, what if he’s the one?”
“That’s just it. I’m pretty sure he
is
the one, which is why I don’t want to mess it up by moving too fast. We’re not dating other people, but we’re not moving in together right away.”
Taran came back in. “That’s the last of it, Sara. Here’s the key to the U-haul. Mauro’s here, so we’re gonna get on the road. You need anything else before we go?”
“No, I think that’s it.”
“Your phone charged up?”
“Yes, Taran, my phone’s charged up and I’ve got your number in it.”
“Don’t get snippy with me, little girl.” He grinned as he said it. Beside her, Wendy nearly swooned. “Bryan expects me to look out for you. All right. Mauro and I will be right ahead of y’all, so if you need anything, you call me. I already let Bryan in the car.”
“Okay. Um…do I need to do anything for him? Can I drive straight through, or, or what?”
Taran grinned again. “If he needs to stop, he’ll let you know. Just let him relax for a while—he needs it after everything that’s happened.”
“Okay. Thanks, Taran. See you in Houston.”
He gave her a quick hug and left.
Wendy looked confused as she followed Sara outside.
“Why would Bryan need anything? What did—? Oh.”
Her cousin stopped and stared at the tiny Miata, the backseat filled with suitcases, the front seat filled with Bryan.
“Yep,” said Sara briskly, surprised at how comfortable she felt with the whole thing. “I mean, I gotta get used to it at some point, don’t I?”
The two of them fell silent as they tried to think of how to say goodbye. They each took a deep breath at exactly the same moment, and for some reason it cracked them up.
“God, I’m gonna miss you,” Wendy wailed, throwing her arms around Sara, who hugged her back just as tightly.
“You
have
to come visit me. Have to. It’s a straight shot down 59.”
Wendy released her and stepped back with a sheepish look on her face.
“Sara, the thing is…I know it sounds stupid, but I’m scared. You know? I’m scared to drive that far, to a city that big.”
“I know. I know exactly what you mean, but I promise, it’s like anything else that scares you. Once you’ve done it, you’re not sure why you were so frightened to begin with. I swear you’d love it. You might get there and decide you don’t want to come back.”
“I know. That’s one of the things that scares me.”
Once Sara was in the car, with her seatbelt on and the top down, Wendy leaned in to give her one last, fierce hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“You’re going to do like I told you, right?” Sara said.
Her cousin’s face fell. “I don’t know if I can, sweetie.”
“Wendy, you
have
to. No matter what Bud Rice does, people are going to find out about Wayne and the werewolves, and sooner or later they’ll find out about me. And when that happens, they’re gonna start looking at you and Aunt Lydia.”
She stopped, craning her neck to look all around them. Her condo was on the edge of town, and at eight-thirty on a Wednesday morning, there was no one about. Still, she was worried, for Wendy’s sake, about anyone seeing them say goodbye.
“You have to act like you had no idea. You can’t let them think you knew anything about me being fae, all right? Whatever they say, go along with it.” She grabbed Wendy’s hand and pressed it to her cheek. “Don’t cry. I’m gonna be fine.”
“But I’m not!”
“Yes you are. You’re the next one out. But ’til then, you have to keep your head down and look after your mom. Promise me. I’ve got enough on my plate right now, I can’t worry about y’all getting run out of town or killed.”
“No, no, you’re right.” Wendy took a deep breath and nodded firmly. “If anyone ever finds out about you being fae, I’ll say,
‘Oh my God, that bitch is going to hell! She’s gonna burrrrn in the lake of fire! The Devil placed a serpent in our bosom, and she—’
”
Sara laughed. “See? You can do this. Now give me one more hug. I love you.”
“I love you too. Call me so I know you got there okay.” She started to reach across to Bryan, then stopped and smiled nervously. “You better be good to my girl. I’ll be checking up on you.”
He just yawned. He was almost too big to fit in the seat, but he curled up tight and rested his head on the top of the passenger door, tongue lolling and tail wagging.
Both women laughed. “I think he’s ready to go,” Sara said.
Soon after that, she was on Highway 59, headed south to Houston. It was like she’d always imagined—except for the werewolf riding shotgun.
About the Author
Kinsey Holley lives in Houston, Texas, where a lot of people know about her Secret Romance Writer Identity. Hopefully those people don’t include her mother or the folks she goes to church with. She’s married to the Hub, mommy to the Diva, and works part time as a law librarian.
She enjoys reading SF, UF, history and romance and is addicted to pop culture and several television series. She dreams of moving to the mountains of Colorado, which she’d never really do because all her friends and family are in Houston and she loves them and besides, she can’t imagine being more than an hour’s drive from a beach. Besides her
Werewolves in Love
series, she’s working on a Regency and a big, glitzy contemporary that she hopes will evoke comparisons to the sexy melodramas of the 80s (Models! Rock stars! Monaco! Alexis Morrell Carrington Colby Dexter Dexter Rowan! No, not her…)
Kinsey takes her mail at
[email protected]
, lives at
www.kinseyholley.com
and
ninenaughtynovelists.blogspot.com
, and hangs out way too much at Twitter (
@kinseyholley
).