“Yeah, maybe you saw him there, too.” Ryenne wasn’t sure what it meant that even one of them was there. But if both of them had been there, it definitely wasn’t a coincidence they were at the Empire State Building at the exact moment some Fangs attempted to kidnap Mom. And it probably also wasn’t coincidence that those two Fangs ended up dead. She didn’t know what it meant yet, but she would.
ELEVEN
When Ryenne got to her mother’s office building, she texted her mom that she was outside.
MOM: Be right down
While waiting for her mom, Ryenne looked around, scanned people’s faces, peered in the dark corners all around to make sure no Fangs were hiding and ready to pounce. She tried sniffing the air, but there were too many different scents, especially on a hot summer day. Sweaty bodies, myriad food smells, perfumes, and rotting garbage mixed with the heavy smell of heat rising off the pavement.
She caught a whiff of Tess’s earthy, grassy scent, now forever burned in her memory thanks to their fight last night. Looking around more closely for the fox shifter, Ryenne spotted her red hair through the windows of a shop. Tess lounged on a side street, only visible through the windows.
Ryenne darted across the street and around the corner, surprising Tess. The fox shifter’s eyes grew wide and she turned and fled down the side street with Ryenne following. With the age difference and Ryenne being in great shape, she should have been able to easily catch up to Tess. But somehow, the wily fox shifter stayed just ahead of Ryenne’s grasp. At the next avenue, Tess was able to cross without encountering traffic but Ryenne got hung up by an aggressive cab.
At the next corner, Tess paused for traffic and Ryenne was sure she’d catch up to her this time, when a black van screeched to a halt, its rear door opening, and Tess jumped in.
“Shit!” Ryenne stomped her foot like a spoiled child. Catching her breath, hands on her knees and bending over at the waist, she remembered her mom. “Shit,” she muttered again.
Ryenne dashed back the couple of blocks, adding a little bit of supernatural speed, not enough to be noticed by anyone. She reached the avenue and saw her mom waiting across the street in front of her building, looking concerned. Ryenne caught her mom’s eye and waved as she waited for the light to change.
A gray, nondescript car careened around the corner, tires squealing, and pulling Ryenne’s attention away from her mother. She narrowed her eyes and watched its progress. It had tinted windows so she couldn’t see the driver, but she had the impression of a man behind the dark glass.
The car jumped the curb in front of her mother’s building.
“Mom!” Ryenne screamed, otherwise frozen in fear.
The car hit her mother, knocking Mom into the concrete wall of the building, and backed up into traffic.
People screamed, jumping out of the way.
The car screeched around the next corner and out of sight.
Ryenne flew across the street, heedless of the honking horns and the shouts of other people who witnessed the accident. Knocking her hip into an SUV, she kept running as if nothing had happened. She didn’t feel the pain. All she saw was her mom lying on the sidewalk, and her eyes blurred with tears.
She reached her mom and dropped down to her knees next to her mother’s unmoving and battered body. Her mom’s beige linen jacket was torn and streaked with grease. The silk blouse underneath, however, was intact. Taking her mom’s hand, she fought back the tears. “Oh my god, Mom.”
“I’m calling 9-1-1,” a man said.
One of the security guards from inside Mom’s building came out.
“Did you see what happened?” Ryenne asked him, her voice unnaturally high-pitched.
He nodded, his double chins flapping.
“Did you get the license plate number?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay, can you write it down for me and also give it to the cops when they get here?” she asked.
The guy dashed back inside and wrote something on a piece of paper.
While holding Mom’s hand, she checked her pulse at the wrist. Thank goodness, she was still alive. The only thing Ryenne knew for sure was that it wasn’t Tess, but it could just as easily have been one of the other O’Briens or any other Fang. Or anyone, really. It could have been purely accidental or someone could have targeted her mother.
People kept crowding around and Ryenne didn’t know what else to do except focus on her mom. A faint but insistent siren came from far away. Her mom’s eyes fluttered.
“Mom? Mom? I’m here.”
Her mom’s legs twitched. Ryenne didn’t know if the twitches were involuntary or if she was trying to stand.
“Just stay still, Mom. An ambulance is on the way. I’m here with you.” Her voice caught in her throat. She wished Lucien and Gavin were here, too. The three most important people in the whole world to her.
Not only would the guys have made her feel better, but Lucien could’ve chased after the car that hit her mom. She tried to take stock of her mom’s injuries but she didn’t have a medical background. She would guess broken bones, possibly internal bleeding, maybe a concussion if her head had hit the building behind her on impact.
Ryenne stared at her mother’s beautiful face, a splotch of dirt on her left cheek, and listened to the insistent siren getting louder and louder. “Hang on, Mom, they’re coming. Just hang on. Don’t leave me. Please, Mom.”
The security guard came back out and handed her a slip of paper with the license plate number. Still holding her mom’s hand, she fumbled her phone out of her jeans pocket and called Gavin. She explained what happened.
“Oh crap, where are you?” he asked.
“We’re in front of her office but the ambulance is almost here. As soon as I know where they’re taking her, I’ll let you know. But, Gavin, I’ve got the license plate number of the car that did this.” She read it off to him.
“While I’m waiting to hear from you, I’ll check DMV records.”
“Thanks, Gav.”
“Don’t worry, Ry. She’ll be okay. She has to.”
Then the ambulance was there, and a man and a woman in uniform jumped out with a stretcher and forced Ryenne out of the way. She gave them a brief description of what happened and explained she was the victim’s daughter.
“Where are you taking her?” Ryenne asked.
“St. Luke’s,” the man answered.
She climbed into the back of the ambulance. Once they stabilized Mom, Ryenne was able to hold her hand again. Even in the crazy rush hour traffic of Midtown Manhattan, the ambulance made good time to the hospital.
With her free hand, Ryenne texted their destination to Gavin and asked if he’d found anything.
GAVIN: Not yet.
At the hospital, she was separated from her mom and had to wait in the waiting room on a hard plastic seat for Gavin and for any news.
Before long, Gavin came rushing up to her and wrapped her in a hug. “Is she okay? Are you okay?”
“I don’t know anything yet. What about Lucien?” she asked in a small voice.
“I texted him but haven’t heard back yet. I sent him the license plate number, too, in case he has another way to track them. And to Scotty. I figured the more eyes on this the better.”
“Thanks for letting them both know, Gavin. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” She leaned her head on his shoulder.
“I know,” he said, rubbing her hair.
At least her best friend was here, the man who knew her best. But, damn, she wished the man she loved was here, too. Could he put aside his anger to comfort her?
TWELVE
Eventually, they moved Mom to the ICU, and Ryenne and Gavin got to change waiting rooms. This one was a little nicer, a little less institutional and sterile. While still plastic chairs, now they sat in upholstered plastic chairs.
By the third cup of coffee, someone finally came to talk to them. He was dressed like a doctor in blue scrubs covered by a white coat. Of average
height, he was solidly built and had dark hair and dark eyes. Gavin immediately straightened in his chair and smoothed a hand through his blond hair.
Ryenne and Gavin were the only ones in the waiting room.
The doctor stepped forward. “Miss Cavanagh?”
Ryenne nodded and stood.
“I’m Doctor Nakamura. I’ve been treating your mother. She has several broken ribs, one of them punctured a lung, which we repaired in surgery, and she has a concussion.”
Ryenne let the words wash over her, pushing the anger down, trying to only hold onto what would be most productive and most helpful for Mom. It was hard to do. Her wolf wanted revenge. Her wolf was impatient. And Ryenne was in complete agreement.
But she needed to be strong for Mom. Only her mother’s condition mattered now.
“Will she be okay?” she asked.
“I’m still concerned about pressure on her brain. We just have to keep an eye on her and see, but physically, she will be okay, eventually.”
Gavin heaved out a sigh of relief.
“When can we see her?” Ryenne asked.
“When she wakes up.”
“Thank you, Doctor. Any way of knowing how long before she wakes up?”
“I’m afraid not. It depends on how her body metabolizes the anesthesia.”
They nodded at each other and the doctor turned to leave. Ryenne and Gavin returned to their seats. There were no windows in here, so she checked her phone for the time.
It was nine o’clock. They’d been here for hours. It must be dark already outside.
“Do you think I have a chance with him?” Gavin asked.
Ryenne turned to look at him, trying to make the leap from how late it was to Gavin’s statement. She shook her head, uncomprehending.
“Doctor Hottie,” he said.
“You think he’s gay?” Ryenne asked.
“I don’t know.”
Ryenne realized that beyond recognizing the doctor’s attractiveness, her wolf had stayed calm, maybe because of the trauma her mother was going through. Huh. So all she needed to do to control her wolf was constantly be under huge emotional strain.
Great.
But the threat of Mom’s kidnapping hadn’t been enough, so she needed more than emotional strain. Now the subject had come to mind, her skin started to itch and she wished she could run. At least she didn’t want to jump anyone’s bones.
“What are you thinking?” Gavin asked.
She told him.
“Well, good, because I’d kinda like to jump that bone.”
The sound of someone clearing their throat came to them and they both turned their head toward the door in surprise.
Dr. Nakamura stood there, his formerly impassive face now pink.
Crap, he must have heard Gavin. But he couldn’t know who Gavin referred to in that comment unless he’d been standing there much longer than seemed normal. Then something came to her that she should have noticed as soon as she got close to him. His smell. He was a shifter of some kind.
She frowned. “Yes, Doctor?”
“Your mother is awake. You can see her now,” Dr. Nakamura said.
Her stomach dropped. She didn’t know what to expect but she jumped to her feet, nerves at war with relief and anticipation. Gavin followed.
“Is he family, too?” the doctor asked.
Gavin and Ryenne shared a glance. They were both blond and both the same age. “Yes,” she said, “he’s my brother.”
The doctor looked between them, wrinkling his nose, and then he shrugged. “This way.”
They followed Dr. Nakamura to a set of closed double doors with a sign reading, “No unauthorized personnel beyond this point.” The doctor waved an ID badge from a lanyard around his neck in front of a scanner to the left of the door and they heard a click. He opened the door and held it for them.
Ryenne stood back to let Gavin go first, so she saw the look Gavin gave the doctor as he passed.
Man, if looks could scorch.
She also saw the look Dr. Nakamura gave Gavin. Huh, maybe he was gay.
Lucky Gavin.
Right now, despite Ryenne’s own condition, she didn’t trust any shifter. Sure, she knew perfectly well that not all shifters were rogues, and not all rogues were Fangs. But she’d been through a lot in the past several months thanks to the Fangs, and in her lifetime because of rogues, and she wasn’t ready to allow anyone to be innocent before proven guilty. It would have to be the other way around for now.
A serious mask came down over Dr. Nakamura’s face. “This way.”
He led them to a room several doors away from the Nurses Station. He lowered his voice. “Just a few minutes, okay? Don’t tire her out. She needs all her strength right now.”
Ryenne nodded. She didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize her mother’s life.
The room was dim and there was only one bed. Her mom looked so tiny. As soon as Ryenne saw her, she wanted to crumple on the floor, holding her mom’s hand. She’d never had to see her mom like this. Mom was always there for Ryenne when she was growing up. Her only constant. Ryenne didn’t remember her mom ever taking a sick day, and now here she was, broken and battered in a hospital bed.
Concern for Mom soured in her belly and turned into something stronger, more violent. Ryenne would get the fucker who had done this to her mom.
Gavin went to the other side of the bed. “Hey Willow,” he said, rubbing her hand where it lay on top of the thin blanket. “How do you feel?”
“Like I was hit by a car,” her mom answered in a raspy voice.
“Oh Mom, I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you sorry, sweetie? You didn’t do this to me.”
“But I’ve put you in danger,” Ryenne said. “The Fangs have been after me from the beginning. Because of me, they’re after you.”
Her mom shook her head and then stopped with a grimace. She raised one hand to her head. “Maybe,” she said. “Or maybe they know me from my work and want me for their own reasons.” She paused for a breath. “You can’t take all this blame on yourself, Ryenne.” Pause. “You thought it was your fault the Fangs went after the Malraux.” Pause. “And you discovered that wasn’t actually the case.” Pause. “It may not be the case here, either.” She stopped with a cough, her voice dying out as if she was exhausted.
And, of course, she was exhausted. “Okay, Mom, you’re right.” But it would take more than words to convince Ryenne.
Not wanting to upset her mom any further, Ryenne patted her hand and nodded.
There was a knock. Dr. Nakamura poked his head around the opening door. “You should leave now.”
Ryenne didn’t want to leave, but she wouldn’t upset her mother by arguing with a doctor. “Bye, Mom. Rest. Get better. We’ll see you as soon as they let us back in.”
“Yes, sweetie, go. Go home and rest. You can’t do anything more for me here.”
“Okay,” Ryenne agreed, knowing it was a lie. There was no way she was leaving her mom alone here.
Ryenne and Gavin went back to the ICU waiting room and found Lucien. “What are you doing here?” she asked in a halting voice.
“Of course, I had to come for your mother,” he said. “How is she?”
Gavin filled him in. “Where have you been, man?”
Ryenne walked away from him and wished there were windows to stare out of. She was happy to see him but didn’t know if she was allowed to be. He hadn’t smiled at her and gave no indication he wanted anything to do with her. As he said, he was here for her mom.
Everyone was here for Mom. Ryenne closed her eyes and breathed through the unnatural and sudden stab of jealousy. She was glad he was here.
She just wished he’d wanted to see her, too.
THIRTEEN
The last fight with Ryenne had pushed Lucien to the breaking point. If he didn’t get some distance from her and her raging hormonal urges—and her displays of affection with other men—he’d lash out and hurt someone. He didn
’t want to risk doing something they couldn’t come back from.
The decision to move out of Ryenne’s apartment and into the office with Gavin hadn’t improved much. Gavin kept trying to convince him to give Ryenne another chance. And he couldn’t see or spend time with the only person who really mattered.
Ryenne.
He just needed some time. And space.
“You’ve said that about a million times, dude,” Gavin said.
Lucien shrugged. It was the truth.
Willow also mattered to him, so he tailed her and Ryenne every morning and evening.
One morning, his phone buzzed with a text. He expected it to be Gavin, but it was Martin, a family friend who had helped them during the final attack at Grieux’s house outside of Paris. An elephant shifter, Martin’s strength was balanced by his calm and steady nature.
MARTIN: I just arrived in NY to visit a friend. Hope you and Ry can join us for a drink one night.
Lucien smiled at the idea of seeing his friend in a different setting, and he knew Ryenne would enjoy it, too. Then his heart plummeted into his stomach. Would she hit on Martin, too? He couldn’t bear to see it.
LUCIEN: Sounds good. Dealing with a situation but let me know when you want to meet and we’ll try
MARTIN: Situation? Need help? My friend is also a shifter
LUCIEN: I hope it won’t go that far, but thanks
If nothing else, it was nice to be in touch with someone from home. He didn’t want the family to know what was going on yet, but if he became desperate for someone to talk to, or needed help, at least he had an option.
That evening, Lucien waited up the street, a couple of blocks from Willow’s office. She and Ryenne always passed this way and they were less likely to see him loitering.
But they didn’t show up.
Instead, a commotion rose from the direction of Willow’s office. Sirens wailed, brakes screeched. Fear clogging his throat, he ran toward the building.
When he arrived, Willow was being loaded into the back of an ambulance on a stretcher. Ryenne climbed in after her.
“Hey, what happened?” he asked a man standing on the corner, staring.
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