My stomach clenched again as I realized it could have been my mom. Duran was going after people with a connection to me. I couldn’t imagine how he’d managed to find Donna. I hadn’t talked to her in years. We’d grown up together, been friends forever but had lost touch when I’d gone overseas.
If he could put that together, it was just a matter of time before he struck closer to home. I had to find this bastard. This had to stop.
“Ashim,” my mom said softly. “What happened?”
“I’m not entirely sure, ma’am,” he said. “Reagan got a package, and there were some disturbing photos in it. But I think—”
“Donna,” I choked out as I clung to my mom. “He got Donna.”
“Oh honey.” I could hear her voice hitch, and it made my tears come harder. My body shook as she held me and ran her hand over my hair. “Baby, I’m so sorry.”
Ash crouched on my other side, and he pressed his lips to my forehead. “Anything you need, Reagan, I’m here.”
I sniffed as I nodded. Taking deep breaths, I forced myself to calm down. Now was not the time to fall apart. I had to get my mom out of the house. Out of the state if I could manage it. The farther away from me she could get the better. Duran obviously knew I was home since he’d gotten the photos into the house. It wasn’t safe for her to be there anymore.
“Mom,” I said, my voice barely wavering as I pulled from her embrace so I could look at her. “You need to get out of here.” She opened her mouth as if to argue, but I put a hand up. “I can’t keep you safe here. Please. I can’t open another envelope and find pictures of you like that. I need you to go. Pack a bag, and get the fuck out of here.”
“Reagan Baine, I will not be scared out of my own house,” she argued sternly.
“Don’t make me show you the pictures. I don’t want you to have to live with those images, but I will if that’s what it takes to get you to understand. You have to go. I promise you, we’re going to end this soon. But for now, I can’t worry about you and get my job done.”
“She’s right, Mrs. Baine,” Ash agreed. “Your daughter’s going to get this guy. But if you’re here, we’ll all be more worried about your safety than getting the job done. I don’t doubt you’re a tough chick. You’d have to be in this family. But this guy is seriously bad business. Please, ma’am.”
“All right,” she said with a sigh. “Let me make some calls and find somewhere I can go.”
I handed her my phone. “Don’t use the house phone,” I said. “Just in case.”
She nodded and took the cell. Running a hand over my cheek, she patted my face gently then stood and walked back toward the stairs.
“Are you okay?” Ash asked as he helped me to my feet.
“I’ll be fine,” I said with another sniff. “I need to clean this up.”
“I’ve got that,” he said. “Why don’t you take a shower while I sweep up the mess?”
I kissed his cheek, moving away with a hand over my mouth as he turned to try to kiss me for real. With a chuckle, he nodded and went in search of the broom as I went to take a hot bath and brush my teeth.
* * * *
An hour later, Ash had gone upstairs to make some phone calls and I was sitting at the table with my mom.
“I’m so sorry about all of this,” I said as I covered her hand with mine. “This shit isn’t supposed to come home with me.”
“Eventually, it always does, Reagan,” she said with a sigh. “This isn’t the first time I’ve had to leave this house for fear of some bad guy hurting me or my family, and I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last.”
Maybe, everyone was right about us Baine’s. We really were a fucked up crew.
“So,” she said brightly, changing the subject, “tell me about your boys.”
“It doesn’t bother you?” I asked cautiously. “That I’m with both of them?”
“Reagan, I want you to be happy. You’ve had so much darkness in your life, it would be nice to know you have some light to counter it. If these men are what you need to cope with the things you have to do every day, then more power to you. There is no right and wrong in love.”
“Did we force you to be so open-minded or did you come this way?” I asked with a laugh.
“A little bit of both, probably,” she said with a smile. “Though with my gay vampire son, there may have been a learning curve.”
“Speaking of Mitch,” I said as I heard a car pull into the driveway. “That’s probably him and Cyrus.”
“Reagan!” The front door crashed open, and Cyrus was yelling from the hallway.
“What?” I asked, alarm spiking through me as I walked to the foyer. “What happened?”
“I thought you said Duran is human?” Mitch said, his voice gravelly with anger.
“He is.” I shrugged. “What’s the problem?”
“Maxwell Duran is a werewolf, Reagan,” Cyrus bit out coldly. “He’s the fucker who turned me in Egypt.”
“That’s not possible.” I shook my head in disbelief. “I have years of intel on him. There isn’t a single mention of shifting anywhere. I’ve spent months tracking him. If he were a shifter, I would know.”
“I’m telling you,” Cyrus growled, and I fought to stand my ground and not shrink away from him. “He is a fucking werewolf.”
“Wait,” I said as I glanced between Mitch and Cyrus. “Was he there? Did you see him?”
“What’s going on down here?” Ash asked as he thundered down the stairs.
“Mom,” Mitch said as he grabbed her elbow and steered her back toward the kitchen. “You should pack a bag and head to my apartment.”
“Will everyone please stop…” Her voice trailed away as he moved her farther into the other room and Cyrus started talking again.
“Duran,” he answered Ash. “He’s the shifter who turned me.”
“Did you know?” Ash asked, his voice so thick with anger it startled me.
“Of course, I didn’t know!” I yelled back at him. “I thought he was human. And will you please answer me.” I rounded on Cyrus. “Is he at the club right now?”
“Yes. He rented out the whole place. Mitch’s friend works the door and let us sneak in the back to have a look around. And there he was, Maxwell Duran, sitting right in front of the stage throwing money at the strippers with a single bodyguard. Why the hell would he need anything else? He could shift at any time and tear that room to shreds.”
“Wait a fucking minute!” I struggled to keep myself calm but it was a losing battle. “He is sitting in a strip club right now with one armed guard, and instead of calling me to meet you there, you decided you would come back here and scream at me. Are you two out of your fucking minds?”
“Look, Reagan,” Mitch said as he came back into the hallway.
“No, you look, Mitchell,” I yelled, shoving my finger nail into his sternum. “That bastard killed Donna and sent me pictures of her mangled body. He will come after Mom, he will come after you and he will come after my boyfriends. It won’t stop until I put a bullet in his head. And now that I know I need to pack silver, I have everything I need. Take me back down there, and get me in.”
“No way.” Cyrus crossed his arms over his chest and glared at me. “I’m not letting you go in there. He was scary enough when he was just a goon with an army, but this guy is too much for even you, Reagan. Hell, I don’t know if the four of us could take him.”
“Well, you can’t,” Ash said calmly.
“Excuse me?” Cyrus turned on the darker man with a growl.
“It’s a day before the full moon. Do you seriously think I’m going to let you waltz in there to face the one person who can pull out your beast and control you? No fucking way. I’ve told you before, I’ll take you down if I have to, but don’t purposely put me in a situation where that’s practically guaranteed. You’re staying here.”
“You’re all staying here,” I groaned in frustration. “My name is the only one on the contract. I can’t
have you guys involved. I appreciate your information. I never would have found him without you, and finding out what he is, is super important, too. So thank you. But your jobs are done. Now, it’s up to me.”
“You crazy bitch!” Mitch yelled, shaking me with his hands on my shoulders. “You’d really just run in there, guns blazing, with no plan, wouldn’t you? Christ, do you have a death wish?”
I stared at him, not sure how to answer that question. I didn’t really, not anymore. Though if I were honest with myself, I couldn’t say there wasn’t a time when I did.
“I just want it over,” I said quietly.
“Then let us help,” Ash said. “Cyrus can take your mom somewhere safe, and the three of us can—”
“This is stupid,” Cyrus interrupted. “I’m perfectly capable of controlling myself.”
“Cy,” Ash said, rounding on him again. “Do you really want to endanger all of us by going in there?”
“Seeing as how I’m the only shifter in this little party, I think I would be more of a help than a hindrance,” he said defiantly. “If it comes to an actual fight, Mitch is probably the only one who could survive against a wolf as strong as Duran. And that isn’t even guaranteed. You need me.”
“We do need you,” I said as I stepped toward him and put a hand on his cheek. “And that’s why you can’t go.”
“What if something happens to you?” Cyrus asked, looking from Ash to me and back again. “You’re my family. I love you.” He gripped my hand in his and kissed my fingertips. “I love both of you.”
My heart leapt into my throat at his words. Surely, it was too soon to be saying things like that. Even if I knew I loved them, too.
“Look,” I said, my voice choking around the lump in my esophagus. “The longer we stand here and argue, the more likely it is that we’ll lose Duran. This is the best lead I’ve had on him in months. I need this to be over.”
“Then we all go,” Mitch said with a shrug. “It’s that, or we spend the night fighting over who gets to go and none of us do.”
We all looked at him, and I knew he was right. None of them would let me go in there alone, and the clock just kept ticking.
“Fine,” I agreed with a shrug. “But we make a deal right now. If any of us gets the chance to kill him, we take it. No one will blow this shot worrying about anyone else’s safety. I don’t care if you have to shoot through me to hit him. If you get a shot, you take it.”
“Reagan—” Ash started, but I put a hand up.
“Look,” I interrupted. “I’m not blowing this opportunity. This is so much bigger than any of us. Duran has murdered too many innocent people. I would gladly give myself up to see his reign of terror end. And I can’t do my job if I’m worrying about you three. We go in there, and we do our job, casualties be damned. Am I understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” they all agreed.
“Fabulous.” I turned and headed toward the stairs. “Mitch, come help me suit up. I need the combination to Dad’s safe.”
Chapter Fourteen
Twenty minutes later, I’d packed every gun, silver bullet and blade I could fit in a bag and on my person, and we were in Mitch’s truck headed toward the strip club.
“So, do we have a plan?” Ash asked tentatively from the backseat.
Mitch snorted, and I reached over and punched him. As we’d been collecting all of our father’s weaponry, I’d come up with an admittedly terrible plan, but it was our best shot.
“What?” Cyrus asked suspiciously.
“We’re going to sneak in the back like you and Mitch did. I’m going to pose as a stripper while you guys take flank positions around Duran. While I’m hopefully distracting him, you guys get rid of the bodyguard. Take out Maxwell if you can. If push comes to shove, I’m going to pump him so full of silver he’ll be bleeding it.”
“That’s your plan?” Ash asked incredulously. “You’re going to be almost naked on a stage a few feet from him? Where the hell are you going to keep a gun?”
“Well, apparently,” Mitch said, his tone thick with annoyance. “I’m going to just toss her one when she gives me the signal.”
“What’s the signal?” Cyrus asked as if he didn’t really want to know.
“I’m going to yell ‘Mitch’, and he will throw me the gun from backstage.”
“This is a brilliant plan,” Cyrus said facetiously.
“Thank you,” I replied, choosing to ignore his sarcasm.
Mitch called his friend at the club to make sure Duran was still there and to get him to open up the backdoor for us.
When we made it there, the manager was waiting for us. We filled him in on the plan, and though he wasn’t thrilled, my military clearance trumped his annoyance and we got our way.
One of the dancers was instructed to help me get dressed. The guys refused to leave the back of the club until I was totally settled and ready to go on with what was quickly becoming my least favorite plan ever.
The girl assisting me managed to help me find a pair of high-waisted shorts I could actually hide a gun in the back of. As long as I didn’t turn around on stage, Duran might not even notice I had it. Then she strapped me into a corset and put me in the lowest heels that fit, which still ended up being three inches high. Staring at myself in the mirror I realized this would never, ever work.
“Jesus,” the manager said, his voice thick with disgust. “Can’t you do anything about her scars? You look like you fell into a meat grinder.”
Before I could respond or even start to feel self-conscious, Ash had grabbed the man and pinned him to the wall.
“You shut your fucking mouth,” he said hoarsely. “Reagan is one of the most beautiful women who will ever grace your stage. You apologize to her right now.”
“I’m very sorry, miss,” the manager said, massaging his throat when Ash released him. “You are quite lovely. It just took me by surprise, is all.”
“Everyone who’s not currently banging me needs to get out of here,” I said sternly.
“I’ll be right outside the door,” Mitch said as he ushered the manager and the dancer out of the dressing room. I knew he’d get them out of the building, as well. God only knew what kind of firefight could go down, and I didn’t want anyone innocent in the crossfire.
“You guys can go, too,” I offered one last time. “This isn’t your fight.”
“The hell it isn’t,” Cyrus yelled. “That fucker is the reason I’ve never seen the Sphinx.”
“And he’s the reason I’ve heard about it for so many years,” Ash agreed with an eye roll.
“Listen,” I said, taking their hands in mine. “This isn’t goodbye because we’re going to win. We’re the good guys, so I have to believe that. But just in case, well, I wanted to tell you…” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Tell us later,” Cyrus said, leaning in to place a soft kiss on my lips.
“In bed,” Ash agreed as he too pressed his lips to mine.
I nodded, blinking back tears. They were right. We’d get through this, and I could tell them how I felt about them later. Right then, I needed to get my head in the game. The song ended for the stripper who was on stage, and I needed to get out there so Mitch could get her to safety and the guys needed to get into position.
I followed them out, watching as they split up to take opposite sides of the room. Mitch stood at the edge of the stage, and he just nodded at me. I smiled weakly at him before stepping onto the stage and facing Maxwell Duran for the first time.
All thoughts of a plan escaped me as I stared at the man who’d murdered my best friend. The cold, dark eyes glaring back at me showed me a being with no soul left. He had killed hundreds, probably thousands, of people, and there was no remorse. This would end tonight.
“Shit,” Mitch mumbled from offstage.
A shot was fired from the back of the room, and the bodyguard next to Duran slid to the floor.
“Reagan Baine.” Maxwell stood slowly, his ga
ze locked on me. It was as if he wasn’t concerned with where the gunfire had come from.
I pulled my weapon and leveled it at his head.
“You don’t want to do that,” Duran said silkily as he walked toward me. He sniffed heavily and smiled. “You didn’t really think I’d only brought one bodyguard, did you? There are men with guns trained on you, your brother and your lovers. If you don’t lower your gun right now, they’ll be dead and I’ll eat your heart while you watch it happen.”
I tightened the grip on my pistol and aimed for the center of Duran’s forehead. Before I could get a shot off, there was an explosion of pain in my arm and the gun fell to the ground as a bullet ripped through my shoulder.
“Motherfucker!” I yelled as fire flared through the muscles in my arm and back. I hated being shot.
More gunfire sounded throughout the room as voices began shouting. The cacophony was so loud I couldn’t make out any actual words. Duran wasn’t distracted though. He stalked toward me, claws extending through his fingers. I dropped to my knees and tried to grip my pistol, but blood had run down my arm and over my fingers, making it too slippery to get ahold of the metal.
“My little Reagan,” he cooed as he walked up the steps of the stage. “How long I’ve waited to finally meet you. But the time never seemed quite right. Look at you now. On your knees before me. This is better than I’d even hoped for.”
“Fuck you,” I spat as I reached for the gun again. But Duran kicked out and knocked the weapon out of reach.
“Language,” he scolded as he bent over me. “The shots have stopped. I would imagine your men are all dead. Such the pity. I smelled my Cyrus out there somewhere. It was my greatest regret that I wasn’t able to bring him with me to train as my own. But that swarthy bastard got to him first. Ah well. They’re both gone now.”
I looked to the side of the stage but couldn’t see Mitch there anymore. Fighting tears, I turned to see where the gun had gone, but I couldn’t spot it. Duran knelt next to me and cupped my chin in his hand.
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