She brought it to his hand.
Maverick swallowed and eased his hand away from his side, hated the way fear flitted across her eyes and she gasped as she saw the wound. “I’ll be fine, Winnie. It went straight through. Is probably already healing.”
She gave him a look that revealed how deeply she doubted that, how her thoughts were treading dark paths that were upsetting her.
He placed his hand over hers when she pressed the wad of material to his side and she glanced at him again, lingering this time.
He lifted his other hand and brushed his knuckles across her cheek as he whispered, “I swear. I’ll be fine. We’ll get through this.”
“Together.” There was a demand in that one word, an order he felt down to his soul. She knew him better than he had thought, had clearly seen straight through him back in the holding room. Now her desperate desire to fight beside him, to protect him made sense. She didn’t want him to sacrifice himself for her. She wanted them both to survive this and that look in her eyes told him that she wanted forever with him.
And gods, he felt blessed.
Undeserving of that love that shone in her eyes.
But at the same time he craved it, savoured it and wanted more.
He wanted forever with her.
He wanted to look into her eyes and keep seeing all that love directed at him.
Because it made him believe he could be a better male, could be what she deserved.
He nodded. “Together.”
She wrapped the rest of the material around his waist, making only a single tight pass with it before she tied it above his other hip. It would be enough to stop the blood loss.
“What about your shoulder?” She looked at it.
He shook his head. “Just a graze. It’ll be fine.”
She hurried off again and he watched her as he pressed his fingers to his side and grimaced at how sore it was. At least it was slowly going numb, shouldn’t be too much of a distraction in the fight ahead.
When she returned to him this time, she had the controller and the radio.
Bronwyn peered at the buttons on the small black device. “How do I—”
“I’ve got this.” Maverick was quick to take it from her when her finger hovered dangerously close to the button that would inject him with a tranquiliser. He pressed the button for the release on his collar and sighed as it snapped open.
Before he could grab it and hurl it away from him, Bronwyn seized hold of it and threw it along the hallway.
His gaze snagged on something there. A camera mounted on the ceiling pointed towards a corridor that intersected the one they were in. He looked around them, seeking another one, fearing that someone would have witnessed the fight, and spied one at the other end of the corridor. So much for getting to the hangar without a fight. The moment they set foot near the corner of the hallway, they were going to be spotted.
Or were they?
He looked at Winnie.
“I have an idea.”
Chapter 18
“I’m not convinced this is a good idea.”
That was around the tenth time Bronwyn had said that since he had made her strip one of the hunters and put their clothes on, and take the gun, knife, radio and controller. She had given him a look when he had retrieved the collar and put it back on.
One that had asked whether he had lost his mind.
“Look. To these cameras, you just look like a hunter escorting me to the cellblock. I don’t hear any alarms, so it’s working, right?” He flicked a glance back at her.
Cursed in his head.
She did look damn fine in that outfit.
Tight black combat clothing suited her, and the gun was a nice addition, made her look a little badass as she waved it at him.
“Eyes forward.” The corners of her lips quirked in a way that said part of her was enjoying this charade too, or maybe she was just enjoying the view.
He growled and wished he could tell her something similar as she raked her gaze over him, igniting his blood. The feel of her eyes on his bare flesh was enough to have him wanting to find a quiet corner where there were no cameras so he could kiss her. Softly this time. Reverently. So she knew how much he loved her and needed her, and that he could be gentle for her.
If she would give him a chance.
He needed her to give him a chance.
Things between them hadn’t started well, but they could be better. He could make them better.
Fate didn’t seem to want to give him a chance to prove that.
He turned the corner in the corridor and came face to face with Andrew.
The bear’s golden eyes shifted from him to Winnie and widened. “What the—”
He reached for his pocket just as Bronwyn noticed him, her gasp reaching Maverick’s ears. The male didn’t get the chance to press the button on the controller he pulled from his trousers. She beat him to it, striking the button on the one she clutched, popping his collar open before her brother could hit him with fifty thousand volts.
The collar clattered to the floor at Maverick’s bare feet and he launched at Andrew on a vicious growl, unable to hold himself back as Bronwyn’s hurt hit him all over again, the shift in her mood triggering a violent response in him.
A need to protect her.
Andrew pulled something else from the waistband of his trousers and aimed it at him.
Maverick’s entire body lit up in agony as the small darts pierced his flesh and the wires attached to the device delivered a punishing blast of electricity. He went down hard, juddering as lightning pulsed through him, sound warbling in his ears as he struggled to withstand it.
“No!” Bronwyn yelled and he tried to fix his senses on her, but the taser made it impossible as it hit him with another cycle of electricity, pushing him towards darkness.
She appeared before him, shaking in his vision as he shuddered, and struck her brother hard enough to make him lose his grip on the device. She fumbled for it, a desperate look on her face, and shrieked when Andrew grabbed her hair from behind and hauled her backwards. Her fingers briefly brushed the taser before she was pulled away from it and her hands flew to his wrist as her face twisted in agony.
Maverick thought he growled.
Wasn’t sure.
Everything felt as if it was getting tangled and twisted as lightning continued to pump into him, smell and sound blurring together, sight knotting with taste, and he wasn’t sure when the floor had started pitching and rolling.
Bronwyn’s desperate growl spurred him to keep fighting the effects, had him focusing all of his will on inching one hand towards a wire that was close to it. His eyes watered as his fingers shook violently, the way his muscles clamped down on his bones with each fifty-thousand-volt blast making it hard to move. He pushed himself to keep trying, even as the darkness encroaching at the corners of his vision began to spread more rapidly.
His female needed him.
She valiantly fought her brother, managing to break free again, and lunged for the taser. Knocked it flying as she hit the concrete floor hard thanks to her brother kicking her in the back. It skidded towards Maverick and landed near his knees.
Bronwyn scrambled for the wires instead.
She grabbed them just as her brother seized hold of her again and yanked them with her as he hauled her back to him, tugging them free of Maverick’s chest.
Andrew growled at her as he realised what she had done.
Maverick roared at him as he backhanded her.
She hit the wall hard and slumped to the floor, and fear hit him like a truck, had his heart pounding in his ears as he stared at her, all of his senses locked on her. Relief hit him just as hard as he saw her chest move, a soft inhale that told him she had only blacked out.
But it did nothing to calm his mood or leash his temper.
He exploded from the floor, slamming into Andrew as the male looked ready to level another kick at his own sister and ripping him away from her. An
drew grunted as Maverick twisted with him and drove his back into the wall, pinning him there.
“You’re a son of a bitch, you know that?” he growled in Andrew’s face, anger getting the better of him, his blood on fire as he thought about everything Andrew had put her through. “I ought to put you in the ground.”
“But you won’t.” Andrew smiled coldly and Maverick bared fangs at him but couldn’t deny the male was right.
Killing Andrew would hurt her and Maverick had done that enough already. He didn’t want to hurt her again, didn’t want to make this whole experience worse for her, but the colder, harder part of him also knew he couldn’t let Andrew go.
The bear knew where his pride lived, had been handing shifters over to Archangel hunters for years now, building this sick empire for himself. He couldn’t let Andrew get away with that.
“You know. Back then… I hated you.” Andrew spat each word, his expression darkening. “I hated you for taking my sister from me.”
“I never took Winnie from you.” Maverick scowled at the male. “Winnie loves you. Nothing can change that. You’ve put her through hell… hurt her… but deep inside she still loves you.”
Andrew snorted. “She loves you. I saw the way she looked at you even back then. She loves you… because you’re strong.”
Maverick shook his head. “She’s my fated female. She wouldn’t have known it back then… Hell, I didn’t acknowledge it back then… but she is my true mate. I love her. Christ, I would have loved her even if she hadn’t been made for me. Your sister is a kind, beautiful soul. A light in this dark world… and it pisses me off that you can’t see that.”
The bear’s face blackened, his eyes slowly narrowing on Maverick’s as a growl rumbled from him.
“And what kind of fickle female do you think Winnie is to believe she doesn’t have room in her heart for more than one person? She proved how much she loved you by going with you rather than with me and Rune.” Maverick shoved his hand against the male’s chest and stepped back from him, unable to believe the things Andrew was saying and on the verge of striking him for painting Winnie in such a bad light. “She proved it by bringing me here because she believed you were in danger and this was the only way to save you.”
He shook his head again, unsure what to do with Andrew as he struggled to rein in his dark urge to surrender to his need to lash out at him, and unsure whether he could make the male see just how special, and loving, his sister was. He had the feeling he was wasting his breath.
Really had that feeling when fire bloomed just above the gunshot wound on his hip and he looked down.
Stared at Andrew’s fist where it pressed into his side.
Grunted when the bastard pulled it back and tugged the small knife free of his flesh with a wet sucking sound.
Red veiled the world and Maverick roared as he cocked his fist and struck Andrew hard across the jaw, snapping his head to his right, and then hit him again as he was going down. Andrew swung blindly for him, his elbow struck the wall and his arm lurched off course, heading back at himself instead.
Maverick flinched as the blade Andrew gripped cut a slash across the base of his neck.
Bit out a curse as blood gushed from the wound.
He dropped to his knees beside the male and pressed his hand to the wound as Andrew’s wide golden eyes landed on him, wild with pain and fear. Maverick pressed hard against the small gash, his hand slipping around in the blood.
Swore again, aiming it at Andrew this time.
The bear’s actions grew sluggish as he fumbled for his throat, his eyes going glazed.
“Dammit. Don’t you dare die on me.” Because he didn’t want to have to tell Bronwyn her brother was dead. She would assume he had done it, would see him as the monster he was, a male so callous and unfeeling that he would kill someone she loved.
He pressed harder against the wound as Andrew slumped against the floor and stared at the male’s face and then the blood pooling beneath him. His hope leached from him at the same rate as that blood poured from Andrew.
Maverick hung his head forwards, let his hands fall from Andrew’s neck and growled out another curse.
He wiped his hands on Andrew’s shirt and frowned as he glanced at the male’s trouser pocket and spotted something silver. He took the locket and stared at it, sighed and curled his fingers around it as he stood, trying to think of what he was going to tell Bronwyn when she came around.
He turned and froze as he found her staring at her brother, pale as a ghost, her eyes enormous.
His fingers tightened around the locket as his heart clenched and the tears that trembled on her dark eyelashes made his chest constrict. “How much did you see?”
“Enough,” she whispered, a lost look in her eyes.
“How much did you hear?” His heart drummed a sickening rhythm against his chest as he recalled what he had told her brother.
He loved her.
Her eyes shifted to lock with his. “Enough.”
Maverick swallowed hard and went to her, held the locket out to her and waited for her to take it. She slipped her hand into his and pulled herself up onto her feet instead, and then glanced down at their joined hands.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured.
“It wasn’t your fault.” She smiled briefly, there and gone in a heartbeat, and he could feel the pain in her, knew it was going to take her some time to get over losing her brother and the things Andrew had done and said to her, but if she let him, Maverick would be with her every second of it.
Her hand slipped from his and she gazed at the locket in her palm as she sighed.
She curled her fingers around it and slipped it into her pocket.
Looked at him.
“Let’s go home.”
Home.
That single word gave him hope, buoyed him up and chased his fears away, making him feel as if that future he needed with Winnie was still on the cards.
He took hold of her hand and started walking with her again, drawing her away from her brother and standing on that side of her so she didn’t have to see him. He breathed a little easier when they rounded a corner, but tensed again when he spotted a glass panel in one of the walls ahead of him. He approached it slowly, cautiously, his senses checking ahead of him.
It was empty.
The tension flowed from him again and he glanced into the security room as they passed the window, staring at the monitors that revealed the hangar and the soldiers gathered in it, preparing to depart on helicopters that would take them to Black Ridge.
Home.
She had called it that. She had made it sound as if it was her home too now, that she would stay with him and become a part of his life—a part that felt vital to him.
He wanted to go home with her and start that new life with her.
But first, they needed to keep that home safe.
And make it out of this place alive.
Chapter 19
Bronwyn clutched the assault rifle as she hurried along a stark white corridor behind Maverick. He bent his dark head towards the plastic sign he had ripped from a wall, one that had a map of the building on it, and then stilled and lifted his head. When he canted it, she listened too, straining to hear what he had.
“This way.” He tossed the sign away, grabbed her wrist and pulled her with him, forcing her into a run.
Her gaze darted to the strip of black material wrapped around his waist and then lifted to the spot above it, and her stomach turned as she stared at the crimson trail that tracked down his hip from the knife wound there. She peered at the strong hand that gripped her arm and wrenched her eyes away. Blood stained it. Her brother’s blood.
Sickness brewed, acid forming to scour her insides raw as she replayed that moment all over again and felt as if she was reliving it. She had come around to a buzzing head and Maverick arguing with Andrew, had wanted to say something but the pain had been too much.
And then Andrew had stabbed him.
She had seen the moment Maverick had snapped.
His grey eyes had rapidly darkened like a thunderstorm and he had reacted in an instant, striking her brother twice.
She kept wondering what might have happened if Andrew hadn’t tried to hit him again with the knife. If things had gone even slightly differently, would her brother still be alive? She hadn’t wanted him to die, hurt right down to her soul as she thought about the fact he was gone. Some part of her had clung to the belief she could redeem him somehow, had dared to hope that he would come around and correct the terrible things he had done if she just kept trying to reach him.
Had believed that she could make him see how deeply she loved him.
Maverick had tried to make him see it, but the look on her brother’s face had crushed her hope. Andrew had severed all ties with her, had killed whatever feelings he’d had for her, and had made up his mind about her feelings towards him. He had convinced himself that she didn’t love him and nothing she could have said or done would have changed that.
It wasn’t a comfort.
She tensed as Maverick pulled her behind a wall at a junction in the corridor and flattened his back against it. He leaned away from her and peered around the corner.
When he eased back and looked her way, he stilled and lingered, his grey eyes holding hers. The cold in them turned to warmth laced with fear and a hint of despair as he edged closer to her and turned, lifted his hand and swept his fingers across her cheek, spreading moisture across it.
She quickly lifted her hand and wiped the tears she hadn’t noticed away.
“I’m sorry,” he husked.
Bronwyn shook her head. He kept saying that, but there was really no need for him to apologise. She had seen everything. She had witnessed how hard he had tried to convince her brother and how he hadn’t been able to bring himself to hurt Andrew. Maverick had wanted to try to save him and it had been for her sake. He hadn’t wanted her to hurt any worse than she already had been and she appreciated that.
Awakened by her Bear (Black Ridge Bears Shifter Romance Series Book 5) Page 16