“I’ve been stabbed, boy,” said Jimmy.
“Oh come on,” said Cole. “You’re a wolf. You’re healing.”
“I’m not healed up yet.”
“So name the time,” said Cole. “Give me a day. Three days from now? A week?”
“A week and a half,” said Jimmy.
Cole smiled grimly. “I accept.”
* * *
Cole lounged in the van, looking proud of himself.
“I don’t see how this helps us,” said Avery.
Cole smiled. “It’s very simple, Brooks. I’m killing Jimmy.”
“What a second,” said Avery. “That’s not what the SF does. We don’t kill wolves.”
Cole shrugged. “Jimmy deserves it. Plus, he’s the key. He’s the alpha. He controls the pack. If he’s out of the way, then he can’t call any of the other members, he can’t force them to shift. Essentially, the danger goes away.”
Earl raised his eyebrows. “Is he right about that?”
“Technically,” said Avery.
“Any human court would agree that Jimmy’s dangerous,” said Dana. “He’s a murderer and an abuser. He doesn’t offer anything good to the world.”
“But this isn’t a court,” said Avery. “This is the SF, and we’re convicting and sentencing this guy? We can’t do that.”
“Well,” said Earl, “when it comes down to it, the wolves that get locked up don’t get to go to court either, do they?”
“But we don’t kill them,” said Avery.
“You want to lock him up?” said Cole. “Even if you could, you have to remember the kind of damage I was able to create with my pack. And it was nowhere near as big as Jimmy’s. We have to break the tie that he has with his pack. And the only way to do that is to kill him.”
Earl stroked his chin. “So, once this tie is broken, then the wolves will be free?”
Cole nodded.
“So,” Earl said, “once Randall’s got Jimmy out of the way, we can close in on the farmhouse and bring everyone in, then.”
“Right,” said Cole. “And if we don’t get Jimmy out of the way, then you’ll have to contend with an entire pack out for blood.”
Avery sighed. “I guess it makes sense.”
“It’s the best idea we’ve got, Brooks,” said Earl.
Dana furrowed her brow. She turned to Cole. “What if it doesn’t go your way, though? What if Jimmy kills you?”
“He won’t,” said Cole.
“You’re going in alone, but there’s no guarantee he’ll follow the rules,” said Dana. “What if he ambushes you?”
Avery rolled his eyes. “Your concern for him is touching.”
Cole grinned at her. “Trust me, I can do this. I’ve been waiting to do this for a long time.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Dana knocked on the door of the apartment. She was two floors down from her own, on another wing. There were two armed SF guards on either side of the door.
“Hello?” said a voice from inside.
“Hi, it’s Dana,” she said. “I don’t know if you remember me.”
The door opened. Two twelve-year-old girls were staying in the apartment. Dana remembered them from the night that they’d all huddled together in the upstairs room. Their names were Leah and Kimberly.
“Hi Dana,” said Leah.
“Hey,” Dana said. “I told you I would come to visit, didn’t I?”
“Yeah,” said Leah. “You and everybody else right now.”
“Who else is here?”
Leah opened the door wider, letting Dana inside. “Well, Marissa and Seth came by to see us, and then we met Cole.”
Cole crouched in front of the television with Seth. The two had a tangle of cords and a Wii, which it looked like they were trying to hook up.
“Cole,” said Dana.
He grinned at her. “Hey. Some nice member of the SF let the girls borrow this old Wii, since they figured they were bored. But growing up on the farm, you’re not allowed TV or anything, so they don’t know how to use it.”
“So, you’re helping?” said Dana.
“I asked him to,” said Marissa. She smiled at Dana. “Hi, it’s nice to finally meet you when we’re not in wolf form or naked, right?”
Dana laughed. “Yeah.” She offered Marissa her hand.
Kimberly came over and gave Dana a hug. “When are we going to be able to see the other kids?”
“After the full moon,” said Dana, hugging back.
“But we don’t shift yet,” said Kimberly.
“I know, sweetie, but everybody’s just trying to be really careful,” said Dana. “Lots of girls your age can shift, and—”
“And they think we’re lying,” said Leah.
“No,” said Dana.
“They do, though.” Kimberly folded her arms over her chest. “That’s why there’s guards on our door. Because they don’t trust us.”
“No,” said Dana. “That’s not it. It’s for your safety. If Jimmy made you shift, then you wouldn’t be in control of yourself, and something bad might happen. It happened to Cole and me.”
Marissa put her arm around Leah. “Hey, it’s way better out here than it is on the farm. Don’t you think? I mean, you might be stuck in this apartment, but you guys each have a bedroom to yourselves. When would that happen on the farm?”
“Whatever,” said Kimberly. “I had my own room in the trailer.”
“Yeah, but it was the size of a closet,” said Leah.
Kimberly glared at her. “Anyway, Marissa, you don’t understand. You wanted to leave. No one asked us. Rusty forced us to instead. He made us take all the kids. And now we can’t even see them.”
“Well, I can see them,” said Dana. “I’ll go and visit, and then I’ll come back and tell you how they’re doing. You can even write letters to the older ones. The ones who can read.”
Marissa smiled at them. “See? It’ll be okay.”
“What about our moms?” said Leah.
“I’m going to get all the moms out of there,” said Cole. His voice was muffled because he was behind the entertainment system. “Don’t worry.”
“My mom doesn’t want to leave,” said Kimberly. “And she said that you were bad, Cole. She said you were going to hurt us.”
Cole popped his head out. “No way. I would never hurt you. And I’m only a little bit bad.” He held up his forefinger and thumb to gesture how much.
“He’s not bad,” said Marissa. “I think he’s good. He’s helping us. You guys might not understand, but he is.”
Cole turned on the TV. “I think I got it.” The screen filled with the Wii logo. “Yup. Looks like. Who wants to bowl?”
Leah wrinkled up her nose. “Bowl?”
“You remember,” said Kimberly. “We saw that bowling alley one time? We asked about it, and your mom said it was a bad place, because they serve beer there.”
Leah’s eyes widened. “Beer?” It was pretty clear she thought drinking beer was right on par with eating babies.
“No beer here,” said Cole. “Promise. This is not bad. It’s just bowling.” He gestured with his head. “Come on, I’ll show you how.”
* * *
The girls ended up taking to the Wii games pretty quickly. Before long, there were loud peals of girlish laughter echoing through the apartment. Dana stayed to watch. She even played a few rounds. When it got later, she ordered pizza and ate with all of them.
By the time she left, she had her pockets stuffed with letters that the girls, Marissa, and Seth wanted taken to the smaller children. Those kids were still staying at the childrens’ home, and Dana had promised to visit them and report back.
She thought that Leah and Kimberly were normal kids for the most part, but they also had a wariness and confusion to them. They didn’t completely trust their new surroundings. They missed their mothers and siblings as well. They’d been uprooted from their home. Dana was glad that they were safe, but she realized that it was toug
h for the girls.
Marissa and Seth, on the other hand, were both a little older. Teenagers who’d escaped voluntarily, they were downright cheery about being at the SF. They both seemed eager to go through the SF training and break their tie to Jimmy. For the two of them, a new life had begun, one not regimented and abusive.
Overall, Dana thought it was better for all of them to be away from Hunter’s Moon Farm. When she combined her own experiences with Cole’s stories about it, she could only conclude that it was a bad place to be, and that Jimmy was evil.
The thing that was the most bewildering to her, however, was Cole himself.
She had never seen him interact with younger people, and he was good with them—especially with the younger girls.
He was… charming.
She knew that, of course. Something about Cole had always charmed her.
But her attraction to Cole was darkly sensuous, shot through with warring feelings of danger and excitement.
Cole wasn’t charming in that way with the girls. Instead, he was like an affable uncle, eager to hear all about their opinions and to treat them like equals.
He’d won the girls over in an hour flat. And it was clear and Marissa and Seth also adored him.
She couldn’t understand it.
How could Cole be that way? How could he be an unrepentant killer at the same time as being a charming older brother? Because he was Seth’s, Leah’s, and Kimberly’s half-brother, after all. He wasn’t related to Marissa, but he treated her the same way. Like a little sister.
She could tell that he was protective of the children.
She didn’t have any qualms of leaving him behind with them all when she left.
But she only got halfway down the hall before Cole was trotting after her, an easy grin on his face.
It was so different from the self-assured smile he often gave her.
This expression on his face was… innocent, somehow.
“Wait up, Dana,” he said.
“I thought you’d stay longer. They wanted you to have a round of archery, didn’t they?”
“Well, I’ll swing by tomorrow,” he said. “What are you doing? Where are you going?”
She rolled her eyes. “Back to my apartment.”
“I’ll walk with you.”
She shrugged, turning. “Suit yourself.”
“Always do,” he responded. Ha. There was that hint of smug arrogance. It was never lurking far below the surface, was it?
She started to walk down the hall. “You’re good with kids.”
“Had a lot of practice,” he said, falling into step with her. “I was the oldest of Jimmy’s sons. Got two older sisters, of course, but mostly, I was older and therefore a go-to babysitter.”
She eyed him sidelong. “Sometimes you surprise me.”
“Do I?” He arched an eyebrow.
“Yeah,” she said.
He grabbed her hand. “Don’t go back to your apartment. Come hang out in mine.”
She pulled her hand back. “I don’t know.”
“Oh, come on,” he said. “I know you’re really trying to hate me in there. But you can’t quite manage it, can you?” His voice dropped several octaves. “Try and convince me that you won’t be thinking about me all evening anyway if you go back to your room alone.”
He was right, when it came down to that. She couldn’t get him out of her mind.
“That’s only because we’re mated,” she said.
“Not only because of that,” he said. “You thought about me the whole time I was away from you. Admit it.”
She pursed her lips. “Well, maybe that’s because you kept calling me and giving me a blow-by-blow of your masturbatory techniques.”
He chuckled. “You loved that.”
She picked up her pace, putting distance between them.
He caught up to her, snaking an arm around her waist. “You thought about me all the time, and when you were alone at night, you touched yourself and thought of me.”
She shoved him. “Cole, stop it.”
He grinned. “You can act like you hate me. And you can act like you’re not attracted to me, but I know different. And last night, the way we fell asleep together. You care about me, Dana.”
“No,” she said.
“No?” His tone said he thought she was full of it.
“I was trying to keep you from leaving, that’s all. We need you to help with the Jimmy situation, and I couldn’t let you run off.” That was the truth, after all. That was the only reason she’d let him into her apartment. It wasn’t because she cared about him. She couldn’t care about him. He was a murderer. He was responsible for her own mother’s death.
Why did she have to keep reminding herself about stuff like that?
“Oh, that’s all?” he said.
“Yes,” she said.
He just laughed, shaking his head. “Tell yourself whatever you want, beautiful. You’re coming back to my apartment. You already decided you would.”
The hell of it was that he was right.
* * *
But once she was inside his living room, she forced herself not to relax. She didn’t sit down on the couch. She stood in the middle of the room with her arms crossed over her chest. Maybe if she forced herself to be uncomfortable, it would be easier to leave.
Cole pressed himself up against her from behind. He brushed her hair away from the back of her neck. “See, this isn’t so bad.”
She tried to move away from him, but her legs wouldn’t work.
He kissed the nape of her neck. “We could do this, Dana.”
That startled her enough to make her pull away. She turned and looked at him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Look, we’re already mated,” he said. “And once this Jimmy thing is over, then there won’t be anything standing between us anymore. I won’t have to be on the run. So, we could, you know, try things out. It could work.”
“You mean the two of us could be together?” She shook her head. “No way.”
He reached out and caressed her cheek. “You know it’s kind of sexy that you argue with me about everything.”
She rolled her eyes.
“But,” he said, “you always end up doing whatever I say anyway, so maybe we could engage in foreplay that’s a little more fun for a change?”
She pushed his hand off. “I don’t always do what you say.”
Cole thought about it. “Um, actually, you pretty much do.”
“We will never be together.”
“Why not?”
Because you’re not actually going to be free from the SF, she thought. But she couldn’t tell him that. Anyway, even if he were going to be free, she could never be in a relationship with him. “It would be obscene.”
“You like obscene. Obscene makes you very hot.”
“People would think things about me.”
“Everyone already knows you’re sleeping with me.”
“I’m not, though.”
He laughed. “How do you figure that?”
“Look, it’s not important. The thing is, some sick part of me might like to mess around with you once in a while, but that’s all it is. It’s not anything meaningful. I could never feel anything like that for you.”
“You do,” he said. “I felt it last night when we fell asleep in each other’s arms.”
“I felt sorry for you,” she said. “That’s all.”
He stopped smiling. “No, that’s not all. That was definitely not all.”
“It’s like you said. There’s something wrong with you. You don’t form attachments properly, and you don’t care about people properly, and I could never—”
“You do.” He captured her wrists with his hands and pinned them to her sides.
She let out a little squeak. “Let go of me.”
He kissed her instead.
She couldn’t help but close her eyes and give in to it. His mouth was sweet and urgent against hers. An
d there was something tantalizing about the way he had imprisoned her hands so that she couldn’t move them.
When he pulled away, she opened her eyes slowly, wishing the kiss hadn’t ended.
He gave her a ruthless smile. “You kiss me like that because you think there’s something wrong with me?”
She was speechless. All she could think about at that moment was how she wanted to kiss him again. She leaned forward, trying to brush her lips against his.
But he evaded her. “Uh-uh.” He released his grip on her wrists and his fingers traveled up her arms, feather light.
Thrills went through her.
“You need to admit to yourself how you feel about me,” he said.
“I know how I feel about you.”
“How?”
“You’re…”
He raised an eyebrow.
“I do want you. Is that what you want to hear? You want me to admit that?”
“It’s a start. I wouldn’t mind.” His fingers slid over the outside walls of her breasts, over her waist.
She gasped at his touch. “I want you.”
He settled at the hem of her shirt. He toyed with it. “Why do you want me, beautiful?”
“Because you’re…”
“I’m what?”
“I…”
He tugged her shirt over her head. He eased his fingers under the straps of her bra and pulled them over her shoulders. “Because you care about me. Say it.”
She closed her eyes. She felt more off balance now that she wasn’t wearing as many clothes. “I don’t, though. I really don’t.”
“Wrong answer.” He pushed aside the cups of her bra, baring her breasts.
She sucked in breath, now even more exposed.
He ran this thumbs over her nipples, and they stiffened.
Tiny jolts went through her. It felt nice.
“Do you want me to touch you there again?” Cole whispered.
She nodded. “Please.”
“Tell me you care about me.”
She shook her head. “I don’t care about you, Cole. Not the way you want. Why can’t it just be about this, the way it always is?”
He sighed. “I can see you’re going to need more convincing, Dana.”
Bad Moon Rising (Cole and Dana) Page 26