Head Hunter

by Layla Nash

  “I know, mate,” Evershaw said. “We’re looking. We’re on it. Stay still, you fucking lunatic. You’re no use to her dead.”

  Dodge didn’t believe him. He’d already failed her. He clawed at consciousness as Evershaw leaned into the pack link and the rest of the room faded away. Dodge’s wolf fought to get free, to get to the surface so they could hunt down the bastards that hurt their mate. Had taken their mate. Threatened her. Tried to kill him.

  He roared and howled and fought, despite the alpha trying to keep him still. He had to find her. He had to. His life was over if he didn’t.

  Chapter 32

  Percy

  My head ached abominably. Like someone drove a stake through my temple, and it throbbed in time with my heartbeat. At least my heart still beat, though. Everything else was cold and wobbly, blurring in and out of focus as I forced my eyes open. I didn’t recognize my surroundings right away. The last thing I remembered was a man from the car putting a cloth over my mouth, then everything went dark. And then I woke up in a chair, freezing my ass off, wearing almost nothing.

  The stainless steel and tile floor gave it away eventually, after I managed to keep my breathing just on the right side of hyperventilating. And when I recognized the location and the fact that I was tied to a chair, panic spiraled up and I started to black out again. It was the kitchen at the animal sanctuary. The same place where they’d already chopped up a couple of bodies and got rid of the evidence.

  My breath wheezed as I struggled to stay conscious despite the terror that gripped me. I wanted to scream but knew it would send me to pieces. I wrenched at the ties binding my hands and ankles to the chair, but they were those plastic zip ties that even scissors had difficulty getting through. I only succeeded in cutting into my skin and sending dribbles of warm blood down my wrist.

  No one else was there. Although being alone just made my heart pound faster against my ribs, as if it, too, wanted to escape. I tried to focus, fighting through the fog of panic and nausea. They took me out of my apartment, after they... after they shot Dodge. I squeezed my eyes shut against a surge of tears. They tracked down my cheeks in scalding trails. He was gone. He couldn’t have survived that, no matter what kind of luck he had. The echo of the gun’s recoil ran through my mind again and again – bang bang bang. Over and over.

  I couldn’t give up. I knew he wouldn’t have wanted me to. He’d want me to fight, to at least try to make it out. Someone must have heard the gunshots, one of the neighbors must have called the police. Someone would find Dodge and... My mind recoiled from the thought as images of police and investigators and a body bag surged to the surface. I squeezed my eyes shut again and tried to breathe in and out, in and out. O’Brien would realize, maybe. Or someone would come looking for Dodge. There had been a few of his pack-mates outside the building. They must have seen something.

  If the bad guys hadn’t killed them, too. A low keening noise escaped between my clenched teeth. Had I gotten four men killed? Had my stupid curiosity and inability to just walk away led to their deaths? I tried to rock back and forth, desperate to move or escape or do anything so I didn’t have to face the reality staring me in the face. I couldn’t stop crying. I cried so hard, whispering Dodge’s name over and over, that I missed the sound of a door closing. And the tap-tap of boots on the tile.

  But I couldn’t avoid seeing Geordie and another man as they stood in front of me. Geordie grinned with a cruelty I’d never seen up close, and folded his arms over his chest as he studied me. “Told you to mind your own business, bitch.”

  I coughed and choked, wanting to curse him but not wanting to anger him more. “Let me go. Just let me go.”

  He laughed and elbowed the man next to him, like I’d made a great joke. The stranger went to one of the tables to my right. “Tell us what you saw. And who you’ve told.”

  “I didn’t see anything, I promise. And I wouldn’t –“

  “Don’t lie.” The stranger, with black eyes as flat as a beetle’s shell, picked up what looked like a very small hammer, and held it up for me to see. “It’s better if you tell the truth, girl. You’ll tell the truth eventually. Everyone always does.”

  A knot tied up my throat and made it even more difficult to breathe. I couldn’t look away from the hammer as the man advanced a step. “What is – what are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to hurt you,” he said, his tone oddly gentle. Almost like he regretted it, although the hint of a smile curling his mouth told a different story.

  All of my insides shivered and shook, and I pulled at my restrained limbs once more as he got another step closer. Geordie leaned back against one of the fridges to watch.

  The black-eyed man tapped the hammer softly against my knee. “Should I break your knee first? Go through your fingers and toes until you crack? You have so many bones I can break, dear. Just talk.”

  I clamped my lips shut against a scream. I’d never been brave, not the kind of brave that would have helped me stand up to men like that. Being tied to a chair without much in the way of clothes didn’t help inspire confidence. I shook my head and gulped for air. “I didn’t see anything. I don’t know why you’re doing this.”

  “Why do I not believe you?” Geordie added from the other side of the room. He stood well back. Maybe he didn’t want to get his hands dirty. “Tell me, Percy, why the fuck should I believe you when I have goddamn video that shows me you were creeping around that night?”

  I swallowed hard and whispered, “I don’t know. I didn’t see anything. I saw the new cars in the parking lot and you said you had a meeting so I left. I didn’t want to interrupt.”

  “Bullshit. You would have loved to fuck up my plans,” he shot back. His expression turned ugly. “Uppity bitch, acting like you’re better than everyone.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said. Tears started anew and slid down my cheeks and dripped onto my chest and thighs. I hiccupped and choked on each word as I forced it out, not above begging. “I don’t care about any of this. I’ll leave. I’ll leave the city. You’ll never see me again.”

  “Too late for that,” the black-eyed man said. He put the hammer down just long enough to put on latex gloves, then carefully selected one of the fingers on my right hand, holding it out flat.

  I tried to curl it down, tried to keep him from holding on, and screamed. I screamed and wrenched against the ties, panicking even more as the hammer flashed and a snap of pain shot up my arm.

  Geordie looked annoyed. “Stop making so much noise unless you’re going to talk. You already got your boyfriend killed. Who else do we have to get rid of to make sure you learn a lesson?”

  “No one. I told no one.” I sobbed for breath, trying not to move my hand. I shook my head. “Please. I can’t...”

  The black-eyed man lifted the hammer again. “What did you see?”

  I screamed again, begged for them to stop, for help, for a reprieve, but it didn’t matter. The hammer flashed again and again, and it didn’t matter what I said or how fast I talked.

  Chapter 33

  Dodge

  Dodge couldn’t move. They’d moved him. He recognized that in the blur of the world around him. The wolf still struggled for control, wanting to escape the iron restraints that Evershaw exerted over them. He growled periodically and someone would mutter something at him and jab a syringe into his thigh or bicep, and the world would get blurry and slow once more.

  But he heard them talking. The three wolves who’d been outside guarding Persephone’s building had all been knocked out or shot, dragged off somewhere and left for dead. All three survived and were recovering, although they insisted on helping search for Persephone. The entire pack mobilized and chased through the city.

  Dodge groaned and tried to force his eyes open. “Persephone.”

  “We’re looking,” Rafe O’Shea said from close by. “My best trackers are hunting through the city, and the witch is doing whatever she can to find
her. The packs are breaking down the doors of every associate Bridger has and beating the shit out of whoever they find. We’re doing everything we can to find her.”

  It wasn’t enough. Dodge needed to find her. He didn’t trust anyone else to get there fast enough, even if he had three bullet holes in his chest. The wolf surged up and he felt his form slipping, shifting, and everyone else around him cursed and moved in sudden, jerky movements. Evershaw snarled and pinned Dodge’s shoulders, despite that his shoulders sprouted hair and realigned.

  More yelling. Dodge’s control slipped as weakness and pain overrode the last shreds of his humanity. He slipped and slid through the restraining hands as the wolf wrenched them free of the pack restraints. Evershaw tackled him but it wasn’t enough to stop him.

  Dodge bolted despite the dozen humans and wolves who stood in his way, and careened through the house. It was Deirdre’s house, though he only noticed it because everything smelled familiar. A red haze crossed his vision and Dodge lost control of the wolf body. He lingered as a passenger in his own mind.

  The wolf tore through the cellar doors and then he stood in front of Silas: the only other wolf he trusted to have his back and help him find Persephone.

  Then they both launched into the fresh air, avoiding the pack chasing after them, and fled into the city. The only thought that drifted through Dodge’s mind was “we hunt.”

  He hunted. He would find her. And anyone who’d hurt her would pay with blood.

  Silas howled next to him, and Dodge ran faster despite the constant throb of pain in his chest and legs. He hunted.

  Chapter 34

  Percy

  I kept passing out. Geordie complained about it more than once, since it apparently took them a while – and a lot of cold water – to wake me back up.

  Everything hurt. Breathing hurt. Blinking hurt. Just existing hurt, until I almost wished they would just get it over with and kill me, chop me up, and feed me to the tiger. Any hope of being rescued and surviving the night faded as my blood dripped away and stained the floor red and black. There were no more tears. No clear thoughts or plans for escape. Nothing but emptiness as I waited for it to end.

  The black-eyed man took his job seriously. He stopped asking questions after a while and just made me talk. I told them everything. Probably more than they wanted to know. I blabbed every secret I knew, every awful thing I’d done, every word of every conversation I could remember and some I just plain made up.

  None of it helped.

  When I couldn’t even hold my head up and dipped in and out of consciousness, Geordie cut the plastic ties that kept me in the chair. I slumped but for a moment, hope blazed up that I could run or somehow escape. I even tried to stand as Geordie made a face and retrieved gloves after my blood coated his hands. I fell forward onto the floor, trying to crawl away.

  They laughed.

  Geordie crouched next to me as I kept trying to make it to the door. In my mind, getting through that door solved all of my problems. It meant life and freedom and survival. I pictured Dodge waiting for me in the hall, ready to take me home to his room in Deirdre’s house. Even when things were the worst and I took refuge in the darkness of unconsciousness, I thought I heard Dodge. Thought I saw him. I tried to remember everything about him. He was brave. I could try to be brave. I just had to face the closest alligator to the boat first.

  Geordie scraped the hair out of my face as I lost what remained of my strength and collapsed on the floor. He leaned closer to murmur, “I’m going to enjoy this. We haven’t fed that fucking tiger in days, since the last time you interrupted our work. He’s so hungry, the moment he catches a whiff of all this blood, he’ll do the rest of the job for us.”

  I shook my head and whimpered as they picked me up and dragged me out of the kitchen and across to the tiger enclosure. I imagined I could hear Dodge’s voice in my ear, telling me to be strong and keep fighting. That he was coming for me, would rescue me. That we would be together forever and everything would be wonderful.

  It felt crueler than most of the things the black-eyed man did to me with his hammer and scalpels and cigarette lighters.

  “Such a tragic accident this will be,” Geordie said, almost chortling with glee. “Stupid girl wants to pet the tiger and goes into the enclosure. Hungry tiger does what hungry tigers do. Someone will find what’s left of you tomorrow morning. Problem solved.”

  “I hate you,” I whispered. I thought of Deirdre and the pack, of all the shifters who seemed to want to protect me, and managed to wheeze a laugh. “You’re so fucked and you don’t even know it. You can kill me but you’re already a dead man.”

  His eyes narrowed as they opened the steel gated door to the main enclosure. The tiger paced inside the smaller shelter where they usually kept him at night, chuffing as he scented the air. Geordie and the other man hauled me into the enclosure and all the way to the other side, dropping me near a large rock that the tiger liked to sprawl on in the sun. “What are you talking about?”

  “You’ll find out. They won’t even knock on your door.” The faintest hint of curiosity in his eyes meant I’d gotten his attention. Maybe it would buy me some time. Someone had to be looking for me. They had to be. They probably wouldn’t get there in time to save my life, but at least Geordie and his friend would die slowly in the jaws of a wolf or a lion or maybe they’d be crushed by whatever Deirdre did...

  He grabbed the front of my undershirt and shook me. “Focus, bitch. What did you do? No one knows where you are.”

  “They’ll find me,” I said. I believed it to my bones. That was what a pack was for. “They’re already on their way. Your clock is ticking.”

  The black-eyed man snapped off his gloves and laughed. “Nice try, girl. If there had been anyone looking for you, they would have showed up by now. Good luck with the tiger.”

  He walked away but Geordie lingered, watching me as I struggled to find a position where I could breathe without feeling like passing out. It was totally dark outside except for the security lights around the vet building, the parking lot, and along the paths that wound through the main area. I’d been inside that kitchen for hours. It felt a hell of a lot longer. Like eternity.

  Geordie glared at me, then turned and stormed after the black-eyed man. I distantly heard them talking about where they’d get dinner and whether they should get takeout before or after cleaning up the kitchen. My stomach turned over as I gazed at the star-dappled sky.

  Metal clanged against metal as they opened the door to the tiger’s den and released him into the enclosure. I strained to hear the hush-hush of his paws through the grass and stones of the enclosure, since my eyes were too blurry to focus. Maybe it wasn’t the closest alligator to the boat that would sink me. The closest tiger was far more dangerous.

  It almost made me smile. Dodge should have updated his expression to account for more dangerous predators. My head rested against the cold, rough surface of the rock. I watched the tiger stalk the perimeter of the enclosure, wary of a new addition to his territory, and hoped he took a long, long time to decide to eat me. Maybe the pack would find me. I struggled to stay conscious and listened to Dodge tell me all the things we still had to do together.

  Chapter 35

  Dodge

  They ran. The wind cut through his fur and made his eyes water, competing with the pain of broken ribs and slowly-healing wounds in his chest and sides. Dodge’s wolf side lengthened their stride. Silas paced next to him, silent and intense, and they didn’t have to speak in order to communicate. It was one of the significant benefits of being in their wolf forms. They could share images and sometimes simple thoughts mind-to-mind, so the pack could hunt as a pack.

  Dodge focused on the road ahead. Evershaw and the others scoured the city for Persephone, the detective and her partner started arresting all of Bridger’s associates, and yet no one headed to the animal sanctuary. They already knew where Bridger went to dispose of problems. It only made sense that the l
oan-shark would get rid of Persephone there. He found his way through the city as the sun set. They’d kept him sedated and tied up for too long after he’d been shot. Dodge growled a curse for Evershaw’s dickishness. The bastard kept him from his mate. If Persephone was gone before Dodge got to her, he’d hold it against Evershaw for the rest of their lives.

  Which wouldn’t be long for Dodge, since a future without Persephone was an empty wasteland of nothingness.

  Silas growled as they approached the sanctuary. Bright lights illuminated some patches of the enclosures and cluster of buildings where he’d found Persephone last time. Dodge slowed and paced through the shadows, searching for a hint of Persephone’s scent in the air, and cocked his ear as male voices reached them from the buildings. The wolf stalked when Dodge just wanted to charge in and fuck them all up. The wolf knew better.

  Silas slipped off to one side so they could maneuver around the buildings to cut off the escape routes for the men. Dodge’s hackles raised as he recognized at least two of the voices from the night when he watched them dismember the bodies. And then... the wind shifted and a door opened and the air carried a thread of scent to him. Persephone. Followed closely by blood and fear and tears.

  Blood.

  Her blood. Her blood.

  Too close, a tiger roared.

  The wolf bolted into the buildings, searching for the bastards who’d hurt Persephone. He needed to find her. He had to find her before they did anything else to her.

  Even though he would lose his mind if he found her and she wasn’t... If she was...