by Ashlee Sinn
Not wanting to get in the middle of whatever was happening here, I tried to shift her focus. “Where are you from?”
She stared at me a moment before answering. “Texas, why?”
I smiled. “Your accent sounds like someone I know, that’s all.”
The woman continued to stare at me longer than what was appropriate. And when she started raking her eyes over my body, I saw the husband take notice. Speaking to him, and moving a few steps away from the woman, I asked, “What happened?”
He ground his jaw together for a moment, seemingly trying to decide whether or not to speak to me. Finally, he threw up his hands and said, “I don’t have any fucking clue.”
“Jackson! Language.” The woman shouted at him and covered the toddler’s ears in dramatic fashion.
“He’s one, Luanne. Jesus Christ, you drive me crazy.”
Well, these two certainly knew how to bring a man down. “Okay,” I said, moving toward the front of the car, “I’m not a mechanic, but I am pretty handy. Tell me what happened.”
The man whispered something to his wife that made her turn her back toward him before he joined me. “I was driving and then all of a sudden the lights started to blink off and on and I lost all power. I could barely pull it over to the side of the road since the power steering went out.”
“He was driving too fast and hit a big pot hole,” Luanne called out to us.
“The pothole had nothing to do with it!” Jackson shouted back. Then, under his breath, he murmured, “Should have left her behind.”
I suppressed a smile and looked at the battery. “Have you had trouble starting it?”
Jackson shook his head and then sucked in a breath. “Actually, it was a little slow this morning, but I just thought it was from the cold.”
“It could have been, but if you lost power while driving, my guess is that your battery isn’t charging right.”
“I told you we should have gone with a better service!” Luanne was now standing beside us, her baby cooing beside her.
Before another fight broke out, I blocked Jackson’s view and turned to face Luanne. “What’s his name?” I smiled at the baby and he giggled.
“This is Andrew. He’s eighteen months.”
Andrew reached his tiny hand out toward me and I gave him my index finger. He squeezed on tight, tighter than I would have thought possible from such a small person.
“You have any kids?” Luanne asked me, watching the interaction between me and her son very closely.
“No.” Not yet.
“A wife?”
“Luanne! Manners!” Jackson yelled.
I chuckled. “No, that’s fine. And no, I’m not married.”
“Ah, so there is someone special then?” Luanne teased.
I was unable to stop my smile. “Yes, and I’m on my way to meet her.”
Luanne swallowed my body with her eyes again and gave me a seductive grin. “Well, she’s a lucky girl.”
“Jesus, Luanne. I’m right here.” Jackson grumbled.
“Yeah, I know,” she said flatly.
“Okay,” I started again trying to redirect the argument, “Do you have a towing membership?”
“He cancelled it,” Luanne griped.
“How about the rental company? Would you be able to get a hold of them?” I asked.
Jackson shook his head. “Already tried, no signal.”
“Well, maybe we should try to jump it and then I can follow you into town. Are you staying in Homer?”
The couple glanced at each other and an odd look passed between them before Luanne said, “Yes.”
“Okay, I’ll pull my truck around and then Luanne and Andrew can wait inside in the heat while we work on the battery. Sound good?”
Jackson nodded and Luanne said, “See, that’s what a real man does.”
Whoa. Okay, I didn’t know how much more of this bickering I could take. Without another word, I turned to walk back to my truck. But just as I reached the driver’s side door, I heard a set of footsteps walking up behind me. It was Jackson, I could tell by the smell.
“Everything, okay?” I spun around and asked.
It seemed to catch him off-guard and he stumbled backward a little. Luanne was right on his tail, tapping him on the shoulder. “Ask him,” she whispered even though I could hear it very clearly.
“My wife…my wife wants to know if you’re one of those…animals.”
“Shifters,” Luanne quickly cut in. “I swear you look familiar.”
Deciding that it was a bad idea to lie, I nodded. “I am.”
Luanne punched her husband in the back. “Told you.”
Jackson simply shook his head and bit his lip. His hands were behind his back, a strained stance, but everything about this couple’s relationship was strained. “So, I’m just gonna grab the jumper cables. Why don’t you both wait by your car?”
Luanne bounced on her feet for several seconds but then finally turned away. Jackson didn’t move.
“Jackson? Everything okay?” My cougar growled deep in my chest. He sensed something weird. “Jackson?” I asked again when he just stared at me.
“What kind of shifter are you?” His tone had changed, his voice dropping down an octave. Was this because of the way his wife looked at me?
“A cougar,” I said.
“A cat.”
“Sure.”
Jackson’s body vibrated with tension—something I hadn’t noticed earlier. I glanced toward my door, knowing I had a phone that I could use in case I needed to take him out, but unfortunately, I never got the chance.
The second Jackson’s arm jutted forward, I knew I’d made a grave mistake. The bolts of electricity that hit my chest instantly dropped me. Shards of pain racing in and out of my heart had me shaking on the ground in agony. Shifters were stronger and faster, but if caught off-guard, even we couldn’t stop the power of a taser.
The electricity paralyzed me yet I could still process everything happening around me. On my back, I watched Jackson hold the taser and the little electric prods with a twisted smirk on his face. But it was when I noticed Luanne approaching from the back of my truck that I let the first wave of fear run its course.
She hoovered over me, her face upside down because of my position. “Not so strong are you, shifter.”
“Luanne?” I managed to squeeze out.
She laughed, a cackle that echoed through the night and quieted all creatures. “My name isn’t Luanne, you freak. And I’ve seen enough of you for now.”
I opened my mouth to shout something, anything, at her but she lifted her foot and slammed it down onto my head before I could react. The pain was instant, as I felt the back of my skull crack against the pavement. And just a few seconds later, my vision narrowed to a blackened pit of nothingness.
This was not happening. Calvin was not standing me up and leaving me alone…again.
I looked at my watch only to see that one minute had passed since the last time I checked and that Calvin had now missed our date by forty-five of those said minutes. How much longer should I wait? The waitress kept giving me the pity look, knowing that my table for two was quickly turning into a pathetic, and obviously unplanned, table for one.
What an asshole.
After his apology and more this morning, I really thought we were on a road to something wonderful. And, for the first time in my life, I wished I’d had some type of vision about the type of man he was going to turn out to be. Because if I would have seen that he would be with me only when it was convenient for him, I would have walked away in the beginning.
“Would you like another glass of wine?” The waitress, a young girl feeling sorry for me, tried not to look at the empty chair on the other side of the table.
“No. Thanks. I’ll just take the check.”
She handed it to me right away, making me think she’d been waiting for me to give up so she could seat the next couple. I refrained from commenting and pulled out enough
cash to cover a tip so that I could be on my way. I didn’t mind being alone. In fact, I kind of liked being alone. But when I opened my heart and gave the cougar a chance, I had high hopes that I wouldn’t be feeling like I did right now. And the fact that I felt so utterly broken and angry, made me want to be permanently alone even more.
As I bundled up my jacket and cursed the dress and high heels I’d chosen, only for Calvin, I tried to think of something else that could occupy my mind before I exploded. Thankfully, just when I started the ignition, my phone buzzed with a call. I didn’t recognize the number, but needing the distraction, I answered.
“Hello?”
“Sutton? Oh good, I caught you. This is Kenzie.”
I wasn’t sure what to think about the red-headed witch giving me a call. This was a first. “What can I do for you?”
“Have you seen Calvin tonight?”
Instant anger brewed yet again. “No.”
“Are you expecting to see him?”
How would Kenzie know to ask that? Oh, right. Witch things. “I was…” I cleared my throat and tried to remove the anger from my tone “I was supposed to meet him for dinner.”
I heard Kenzie swear through the muffled speaker, like she’d tried to cover it. Then she spoke directly to me again. “Sutton, I kind of hate to ask, but do you think you could stop by Brandt and Emma’s?”
The pit in my stomach swirled in fear. “Kenzie, what’s going on?”
She paused way too long for my liking. “I’m…we don’t know if it’s anything, but we could really use the police to help us right now.”
Shit. I really didn’t like the sound of that. “I’m on my way.” What if something happened to Calvin? Oh my god, here I was, bad-mouthing him to all eternity and there might be a legitimate reason he’d missed our date. A part of me said, yeah, there better be. While another part was worried sick with fear of losing him just as I’d caught him.
It only took me ten minutes to get to the Callaghan clan leader’s home, and by the number of cars in the driveway, my worry grew to an almost uncontrollable amount. Before I walked inside, I quickly sent a text to Alan, telling him to come over in uniform. It couldn’t hurt to have a little backup to deal with whatever I was about to face.
Kenzie opened the front door and immediately ushered me inside. “Any word from Calvin yet?”
My face dropped as I realized I hadn’t tried to get in touch with him since I’d left the restaurant. What kind of a girlfriend was I? “No, but let me try again.” I quickly sent him the twentieth text of the evening, only to have it go unanswered like the rest.
Julia rushed over to both of us, and for the first time I noticed there were others pacing around the living room. “Nothing from Calvin?” she asked me.
I shook my head. “What’s going on?”
Julia and Kenzie exchanged a look I didn’t like, but just as I was about to confront them, Brandt walked over and ushered me further inside. “Thank you for coming,” he said coolly.
“I’ve asked Alan to join us, but I don’t want to wait for him to get here before I find out what this is all about.” My stomach twisted in fear and pain when I took in the looks on everyone’s face. All of the brothers were here, along with Scarlett, Seth, and Major. And not a single one of them appeared to be enjoying themselves.
“We think we’re being attacked,” Brandt said.
“What?” Julia put her hand on my shoulder briefly and then gestured to the couch. “I can’t sit,” I snapped. And then I felt bad, so I added, “Sorry.”
She tried to smile but it barely broke through. “I stopped by Zane’s tonight to see if he wanted to come over for dinner, and his trailer was all torn up. Like someone fought a battle. The windows were broken, the television smashed, and I also saw…blood. His blood leading outside.” She covered her mouth and tried not to let the tears shimmering in her eyes fall. “I think someone took him.”
“Oh no,” I breathed and then looked up at Brandt. “Calvin?”
“Seth was on his way home when he found Calvin’s truck on the side of the road.”
I looked over at the werewolf who had a very inhuman glare in his eyes right now. “Where was it?”
“Over by his new place,” he growled. “There was blood.”
“Seth!” Scarlett yelled at him, then she looked over at me. “It wasn’t enough to kill him.”
“Jesus, you two suck at subtleness,” Bo snapped. Standing next to Kenzie, he continued speaking to me. “Calvin is the toughest son of a bitch I know. If someone took him, he’s going to rip them a new one when he wakes up.”
“Wakes up?” I asked.
“They would have knocked him out with something. It’d be the only way to take him down.”
My heart broke at the thought. My Calvin, kidnapped and unconscious. I couldn’t bear it. Julia grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I’m sorry.”
Wiping at the tears in my eyes, I quickly flipped into trooper mode. “Okay, so what do we know? Julia, what time did you notice Zane missing?”
“Um…around five, I think.”
I reached into my purse and pulled out my little notebook that went everywhere with me. Working helped keep me on track, so I intended to interview everyone who might provide us with some insight. “Do you know what he’d been doing all day?”
“Work until three-thirty,” Brennan said. “I talked to him right before he left.”
“About what?” I asked.
Brennan hung his head and tried to hide his grin. “Women troubles.”
Everyone muffled a laugh knowing how ridiculous that was yet how appropriate it would be for Zane. Zane, from what I’d gathered, had a super big crush on Danika and she was leaving tomorrow.
“Okay, so we don’t know his whereabouts from about three-thirty until five.” I looked around the room. “Did anyone see Calvin after ten this morning?”
“Why ten?” Julia asked, and my cheeks instantly heated.
“That’s when he left my office.”
A round of surprised “Oh’s” filled the silence as the shifters and their mates put together the pieces. Thankfully, Kenzie didn’t let me struggle under the scrutiny too long.
“I had lunch with him,” she said quietly.
“You did?” Bo asked in surprise.
“He needed to talk.” She looked at me and I instantly knew what he needed to “talk” about.
“What time did he leave?” I continued.
“Around one.”
“So that’s a five hour window,” I muttered to myself, then to everyone else said, “He was supposed to meet me for dinner.”
Another group of “Oh’s”.
I turned to Brandt and Major. “Have you heard about anything going on elsewhere with shifters being kidnapped?”
They exchanged a familiar look and I knew I wasn’t going to like what they had to say next. But before Brandt could open his mouth, the front door to his house flew open and Danika stomped inside like a woman channeling the wrath of hell. Her usually composed self had disappeared, and in her place stood a tall, deadly creature with hair flying out of her bun and holes in her black tights.
“Danika?” Major asked, an usual tone filling his voice. I think it was a hint of fear.
“We need to go. Now,” she growled.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up at the sensation filling the room. All of the other shifters had dropped their gaze, as though Danika commanded it. “What’s going on?” I asked, since no one else seemed to be able to speak.
Her eyes flashed in my direction, and I instantly knew why Alan had feared her so much. Her pupils had elongated into vertical slits and the color changed to a bright red. She glared at me for what seemed like minutes before blinking and trying to compose herself again. “I know where they are,” she rumbled.
“Zane and Calvin?” Major asked, stepping closer to her.
“And the others.”
“What others?” I asked.
Ag
ain, I got the glare of death with no answer. “Come on. The helicopter is on its way.”
Helicopter? I couldn’t get my brain to think logically at the moment. Major stepped forward with Fiona at his side. Brandt was next, and Brennan joined him. Major lifted his chin to Danika, who towered over everyone since she was still standing on the landing. He gestured to the four of them and said, “We’re going.”
Danika nodded in approval and they started to leave the house. I immediately ran forward and jumped up the steps. “I’m going too,” I said.
“Me too,” Julia added from behind me.
Danika whipped around and stared at us both. “The grizzly can come, but not the human.”
“Fuck you, I’m coming,” I said instantly.
The room fell to a hush so thick it weighted heavily on my shoulders. But I didn’t care. This scary woman with red eyes wouldn’t dictate how I lived my life. I felt that pressure in the air again, as her slits glowered my way. “It’s not safe for humans.”
“I’m a cop,” I snapped.
“I don’t care,” she said right back.
I stepped up so that I was eye to eye with this creature named Danika. “And neither do I. You can’t stop me.”
“Oh, my god,” Alan whispered. He’d just walked in the door and visibly shook when I challenged the woman he feared so much.
Danika and I held our stare off for quite some time. It was a battle of the wills, and little did this shifter know, I was as stubborn as a mule. Eventually, Danika smirked, just as we heard a helicopter overhead. “Fine,” she whispered to me. “But if you die, the ISC is not responsible.”
“I don’t give a shit what the ISC does.”
This time, Danika tilted her head and let out an evil chuckle. I didn’t like the sound of it but I also didn’t care what she thought.
Danika led all of us outside, and as I passed Alan, I pointed toward Bo. “He can fill you in. I’ll keep in touch with you.”
“Where…where are you going?” Alan asked.
“I don’t know. But they took Calvin and Zane and I’m going to help get them back.”
Alan nodded and thankfully was quick on the uptake. “I’ll gather the troops.”