Bounty Hunter- Grant

by Kim Fox

  The van they borrowed from Jordy came flying around the corner with Ryder behind the wheel. He left the van running and hopped out. “He’s gone,” he said, throwing his arms in the air. “I looked everywhere. I saw the spot where he fell, but he’s gone.”

  “Is it possible he survived?” Amélie asked, looking hopeful.

  Ryder looked like his heart was breaking as he shook his head. Grant knew that feeling. It was the same one he had felt since he saw the poor boy fly off the roof.

  “He took him,” Amélie said without a shred of doubt. “General Hunt has him.”

  “Impossible,” Grant said. “You cut his stomach open a few minutes ago and pushed him down the stairs.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Amélie said with a determination in her eyes. “He has him.”

  Tires squealed in the distance as the sound of powerful engines roared toward them.

  “They’re coming,” Ryder said, turning his head. Four military vehicles packed full of armed soldiers were racing toward them.

  “Get in the trucks!” Grant shouted as he raced to get the rest of the people in. He was going to make sure that everybody got past the security exit, then he was going to hop out of the van, sneak back into the facility, and dead or alive, he was going to find Bryce. He wasn’t about to leave any of his crew behind.

  The trucks with the families packed in them roared to life and began driving toward the exit. The only problem was, the bad guys were closing in fast and were about to block the only escape.

  “They’re not going to make it,” Grant said, feeling his stomach churn as the vehicles approached at a fast speed.

  Mack suddenly stopped his sobbing and looked up with a furious look on his face. He was glaring at the approaching trucks, muttering something to himself. “They killed my boy,” he growled as he glared at them. He hit his right shoulder, then his left, and started smacking them harder and harder until he built himself up into a frenzy.

  “They killed my Bryce,” he said as he began jogging toward them. “It was their fault!”

  “Mack!” Grant called as he jumped into the driver’s seat of the van. “We got to go! Now!”

  The powerful lion shifter was too preoccupied to listen. He ran toward the approaching trucks and phased into his lion, mid-stride.

  “Shit!” Grant said as he climbed behind the wheel and slammed the door shut. Amélie was in the van with him, and Ryder and Tempest were in the black pickup truck with Logan, Elodie and Amélie’s mom.

  Grant threw the van into drive and drove toward the gate, keeping one eye on Mack’s lion.

  He was bounding toward the trucks with a reckless fearlessness that Grant had never seen before.

  “What is he going to do?” Amélie asked, completely breathless as she watched.

  “He’s going to save everyone.”

  One by one, Mack’s lion dismantled the trucks and neutralized the soldiers. He leapt onto the hood of the first truck and burst through the windshield. He grabbed onto the driver and tossed him out through the shattered windshield, sending him bouncing on the pavement as the truck ran out of control. Mack ran onto the roof and jumped onto the next truck as the first one smashed into a wall.

  His lion landed in the cargo bed of a pickup truck that had eight soldiers standing there. Every single one of them jumped out of the truck when the furious lion landed. Mack broke the back window and roared inside. The door flung open and the driver leapt out, bouncing on the cement as the truck veered right and crashed into another truck full of soldiers.

  Mack leapt off just before the impact and landed on the hood of the last truck. The soldier riding in the passenger seat leaned out of the window and shot his pistol at Mack, but missed.

  Ooh, you’re going to regret that.

  Mack lunged forward and grabbed the guy’s arm in his jaws. He let out a horrified scream as Mack pulled him out of the truck through the window and dropped him onto the whizzing pavement below.

  The truck swerved from side to side as the lion slid in through the window and disposed of everyone inside.

  “Oh no!” Amélie gasped when the truck did a violent ninety-degree turn and then flipped over, rolling along the pavement multiple times before coming to a stop upside down. “Is he okay?”

  Grant watched closely as the engine started to smoke and then catch fire. The civilians in the trucks ahead of him had made it through the gate and were racing down the mountain roads that led away from the facility. Ryder drove the van through next and Grant could feel the relief escape from Amélie’s body. Her family was free, for now.

  The upside down truck caught fire and the flames began licking up the sides of the hood, getting taller and hotter by the second while Mack’s lion was trapped inside.

  “I’ll go get him,” Grant said as he skidded to a stop and threw the van into park. He opened the door and stepped out when a flash of golden fur caught his eye. He stood up on the van’s frame and looked over the roof as Mack’s lion climbed out of the shattered window, jumped on the bottom of the truck, and let out a heartbreaking roar.

  Grant knew that Mack’s lion was attached to Bryce as well. He would often watch the large cat teaching the younger male lion how to fight. There would be time to mourn later, but as for now, they had to get everyone out of there.

  “Mack!” Grant hollered as he slapped the roof of the van hard. “Get in the van!”

  The lion looked around one last time, leapt down onto the pavement, and then ran over. Grant hurried out and opened the back doors for him. The lion gave him a sad look before he jumped in.

  He closed the doors and stopped as he heard the sound of helicopter blades turning. With a feeling of dread in his stomach, he turned around and watched as a helicopter rose into the sky.

  He didn’t recognize the pilot, but the passenger had him clenching his jaw. General Hunt was sitting there, clutching his stomach as the helicopter rose. The rest of his crew, Hardy, DeMarcus, Irish, and Caelum were packed in the helicopter behind him.

  A blue body bag that was laid out by their feet caught his eye and the limp hand of a teenager was sticking out. Bryce. Grant just knew that it was him.

  “I’ll come for you, Bryce.” He whispered the promise under his breath, but the words felt like they were pounding through every cell in his body.

  He would never stop searching for him. He knew that much for sure.

  Grant and the General glared at each other for a long moment until the pilot turned the chopper and they flew away.

  “This isn’t over,” he said to himself as he watched him disappear into the vast blue sky. “You’ll be seeing me again.”

  He took a deep breath to calm his raging body and then got back behind the wheel to get his mate out of there.

  “That’s the last of them,” Grant said as they watched the bus pull away. They had immediately driven to the Redemption Creek bus stop to get the prisoners as far away from the military facility as they could.

  Grant had used his credit card to buy each of them a ticket and now they were safely headed all over the country, from California to Boston to Texas—anywhere but here.

  “Are you sure you want to stay?” Grant asked Amélie, hoping she’d say yes. “The General may come back.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” she said as she slid her hand up his round bicep. “Unless… you want me too…”

  “No,” he said as he clutched her hand, keeping her close. “I want you to stay with me. We’re mates now and belong together.”

  Amélie, her mother, and her sister weren’t able to get their passports back from General Hunt so there was no returning to their home in Canada. The General had been hurt pretty badly so he wasn’t a threat for at least another little bit.

  “I was hoping you’d say that,” Amélie said with a grin as she looked up at him with the most gorgeous eyes imaginable.

  “Your family will be safe with us,” Grant promised. “I’ll make sure of it.”

  “I
know,” she said, hugging his arm.

  The cashier handed Grant his receipt that almost stretched down to the floor. He was already desperate for money, and this was going to hurt a lot.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” Amélie said as they walked back to the van. “I know you need your money to keep your ranch.”

  He looked at his mate and smiled. He still couldn’t believe she was his mate.

  Somehow Grant had known it all along but it still didn’t lessen the shock of experiencing it. He had heard Ryder and Tempest speak about how amazing it was to have a bond with a mate but no words could compare to what it was like to be living it.

  His universe had a new gravitational pull and it was named Amélie.

  She was everything to him now. Everything.

  Ranches and family legacies didn’t seem as important to him anymore. This was what really mattered. The people in his life were what was worth fighting for. They were what was worth dying for.

  His mother Dorothy had been right all along, he just couldn’t see it until now. Settling down and continuing the family, adding children to the Clayton name with someone he loved and admired was more important than saving the ranch. The true legacy of the family was the love they shared, not the land they lived on.

  And if he could use what little money he had to save other families who had everything taken from them, then that was a small price, and one that he was happy to pay.

  “We’ll figure it out,” he said as he reached out and took her hand in his. “I have all I need right here.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Amélie

  Amélie watched Grant with a churning in her stomach as he pointed out the large blotted area on Google Maps’ satellite view. She was sitting around the large table in the main storefront on Clayton Rock Ranch, surrounded by her new crew—Mack, Ryder, Tempest, and Logan.

  “I think this is one of General Hunt’s secret facilities,” Grant said as he looked around the room.

  “When do we leave?” Mack said as he jumped up from his chair, sending it rolling across the room and into the wall.

  “I want to leave as quickly as you do,” Grant said with a sigh. “I’d leave now if I could, but this is not something we can just charge into. We need to be smart.”

  Amélie knew that Grant was anxious to get the search for Bryce going, but she also knew that he wasn’t about to bring back two more dead bodies in his quest to bring back one.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Ryder asked as he leaned forward.

  “It’s located in Colorado,” he said, “hidden in the mountains a few hours west of Denver.”

  “How did you find it?” Tempest asked, looking impressed.

  “A whole lot of looking,” Grant said as he rubbed his tired forehead.

  Amélie had seen firsthand how hard Grant had looked. He had tapped every one of his many contacts that he’d built over the years, talking to bail bondsmen, bounty hunters, police officers, and even some of the cons that he booked from all across the country until he had found a lead. It was a brother of one of his marks who gave him the tip. He had heard rumors of a place where they carted in shifters by the truckload, and those shifters never came back out. Grant researched the area and found this spot.

  He wasn’t sure that it was one of General Hunt’s facilities, but it was the best they had and he wanted to go and check it out.

  “We’ll leave in a few days,” Grant said, looking around the room. “But we’ll need someone to stay back on the ranch to protect Amélie’s mother and sister while we’re gone.” His eyes fell on Logan who was slumped down at the table looking miserable.

  He hadn’t been the same since they had returned from their mission. In fact, this was the first time that Amélie had seen him leave his cabin. He was taking the loss of his arm pretty hard.

  “Logan,” Grant said, nodding at him. “You’ll stay back to protect the women.”

  Logan just stared at the table with a blank look.

  “We all saw the fall,” Ryder said as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Are we operating as if Bryce is alive?”

  “Yes,” Grant said with a hard nod. “I’m not even considering that Bryce is dead until we learn otherwise.”

  Ryder swallowed hard. “But that fall…”

  “They say cats have nine lives,” Grant answered. “Let’s hope he only used eight on that fall.”

  Amélie glanced at Mack who had sat back down in his chair. The fired-up lion shifter was gone and replaced by a broken man who was slumped forward with his chin on his chest.

  He had taken it pretty hard since he found out that he was the one who kicked Bryce off the building. His lion had been so out of it during the event that Mack didn’t even know what had happened until they were back on the ranch.

  “I’ll draw up an attack plan,” Grant said as he looked back at the blotted area on Google Maps, “and we’ll leave in three days.”

  They slowly got up after Grant dismissed them.

  “Tempest,” he said, calling her back. “Hang back for a sec.”

  “What’s up, boss?” she asked when it was just the three of them left.

  Grant took a deep breath. “I want to apologize for losing your wand. I know it was something that your Mom gave you and I know it was irreplaceable, but I want you to know that I’m going to do everything in my power to get it back.”

  “I’m not going to lie and say I don’t miss it,” Tempest said with a sigh. “But I’m okay with it. If it means that Amélie’s family and all of those people are safe, then that’s a pretty good trade to me.”

  “Thank you for understanding,” Grant said, looking like a weight had just lifted off of his broad shoulders.

  “Plus,” Tempest continued, “I probably would have accidentally lost it for good at the hairdressers or something.”

  He thanked her again and gave her a hug before she left.

  When it was just the two of them left in the room, Grant slumped down into his chair, looking exhausted as he turned back to his laptop.

  “Your mom is coming for dinner,” Amélie said as she walked behind him and started rubbing his tense shoulders. He moaned and rolled his head to the side as her hands worked.

  “Are you going to come and join us?” Amélie asked, hoping that he would. She had a few days to enjoy her mate before they had to leave for a different kind of action.

  “Yeah,” he said as he closed his laptop and dropped his head so that Amélie could dig in a little deeper with her hands. “I could use a break. My mind is exhausted.”

  “What about your body?” she asked with a grin as she slid her hands down his hard chest.

  He took in a deep breath as her hands glided over his abs and into his lap.

  “I’m never too tired for that,” he answered with a grin. His grin melted into a moan as she pressed her palm against his erection and slid it up and down.

  “My mate seems stressed out,” she said as she glided her hands back up to his shoulders. “Let me see what I can do about that.”

  He watched with wide eyes as she turned his chair around and dropped to her knees.

  She licked her lips in anticipation as she slowly unfastened his belt, occasionally brushing against the hard bulge in his pants with the side of her hands, which drew lustful moans from his chest.

  “Oh, fuck,” he grunted when she reached into his pants and pulled out his big hard cock. Oh, fuck was right. His dick was huge.

  She stroked his impressive length a few times as she looked up into his half-closed eyes. Everything had changed between them since the bonding. She had been in love with him before they bonded, but now it was on another level. It was like they spoke the same language without even having to say a word.

  Amélie had never felt so safe and secure than she was by his side. She had never felt so at home.

  He let out a low growl as she bent over and pressed her wet puckered lips to his hard shaft. She could feel the stress melting
off his round shoulders as she dragged her tongue up his rock hard cock, from the base all the way to the tip.

  Grant was a real man. A true alpha with the big cock to match. He grinned down at her as she opened her mouth and took him in. His taste was thrilling and intoxicating, and Amélie couldn’t get enough of it.

  She trailed her tongue along his length as her firm grasp worked him up and down. Soon, he was breathing hard and fast, looking like he was going to come.

  Amélie amped up her pace, stroking and sucking harder with an eagerness to taste more of him.

  His muscles flexed above her head as he threw back his head and moaned, releasing his seed into her mouth. She squeezed her lips around his shaft and moved her mouth up and down, not wanting to waste one delicious drop.

  “Mon amour,” he whispered with a smile on his lips as she peppered his cock with soft plush kisses. His cock was still hard in her hands. That’s what she loved about him. Grant could come hard and five seconds later, he’d be ready to go again.

  “Voulez-vous couchez avec moi?” Amélie said with a grin as she released his cock and stood up.

  “I can’t speak French,” he said as he turned her around and bent her over the table. “But I know what that means.”

  She nibbled her bottom lip in excitement as he reached under her dress and pulled her panties down to her ankles.

  “Fuck,” she gasped when she felt the tip of his hard dick slide up her soaking wet folds. “Oh, Grant…”

  He grabbed her ass with a firm hand as he slowly slid his way into her aching pussy, making her body erupt in warm shivers.

  Grant had no problem filling every inch of her and she loved every second of it. She hung onto the table as he started to hit her with long hard strokes that had thrilling rushes of pleasure racing through her.

  Sex with Grant was the best sex she’d ever had. They were in love and that just made everything—every sensation, every touch, every taste, every sound—infinitely better.