Knowing the man was at a crisis point and could go either way, she said, “You don’t have to kill anyone, Will. You’ll only make things worse for yourself. How are you going to get away with murder when you couldn’t even get away with stealing some information. You know the authorities will catch up with you. Turn yourself in. Please.”
“But I’ll go to jail for sure.”
“Maybe not for so long,” she bluffed, sensing Donovan’s intent to make his move. “You need help. I’ll tell them that.”
“You think I’m crazy.”
“I think you’re confused.” Tightening her grip on the transmitter still in her hand, Laurel tried keeping his attention on her. “I think your bad fortune has driven you to the edge. But you haven’t crossed the line yet, Will. You haven’t actually killed anyone.” Though his trying to silence the congressman wouldn’t be overlooked. “I swear if you give yourself up, I’ll help you any way I can.”
“You’d do that for me?” he asked suspiciously.
Donovan chose that moment to strike. He leaped forward, but Will dodged him. The rifle went off and the rottweiler lunged into the fray, trying to get at Donovan’s throat. The wolfman quickly pinned the dog and stared him down, curling his lips and baring his teeth, dominating the animal completely.
Max whined and when Donovan let him loose, slunk off.
Will grabbed Laurel and pulled her in front of him as a shield, his free arm pressed against her throat. She could tell the barrel of the rifle was aimed at Donovan’s chest.
Closing her eyes, she prayed for help from somewhere…someone.
“Don’t be stupid, Bancroft.”
“You shouldn’t have done that. Just like you shouldn’t have made that complaint against me. You didn’t even know me and you ruined me without thinking twice. What would keeping your mouth shut have hurt?”
“What you did was wrong.”
No shades of gray, Laurel thought. A crime without a victim escalating to multiple murder…this was beyond her comprehension.
“Will—”
He stopped her by tightening the arm against her throat. “No, Laurel! I won’t listen to you anymore!”
She caught a movement from the den entrance. Hopeful lunged out of the tunnel and plowed directly into Will’s legs, throwing him off balance. Laurel struck out with her elbow, catching him in the side. Suddenly she was free and Donovan was wresting the rifle from Will. He pitched it far into the tunnel.
Will’s rage came pouring out of him in a long war cry. He tackled his nemesis. Moonlight silvered the men as they went flying. They rolled over one another, limbs tangling with limbs. Will was the first to his feet. Donovan rose mere seconds later. Equally matched, they traded punches, but most fell harmless.
Laurel gasped as Will landed a solid hit to Donovan’s jaw. His head snapped. He staggered back, obviously at a momentary disadvantage. Will went after him.
Reacting without thinking, Laurel pitched the transmitter at him and struck him in the head. He flinched long enough to give Donovan a break. He readied himself for the next assault. His punch to Will’s gut doubled the man over.
Then Donovan flew at him, toppling him to the ground, pinning him there as he had Max, his arm levered against the other man’s throat. Grabbing something out of his pocket with his free hand, he quickly jammed it into Will’s thigh.
“Aaahh! Damn you, Wilde!”
“What did you do to him?” Laurel asked anxiously.
A few seconds later, Donovan rose. Will tried to follow but couldn’t make his body cooperate. Without taking his gaze off the man, Donovan showed her a jabstick like the one he’d used on Hopeful.
“He’ll settle down long enough for us to turn him over to the authorities.”
Will stopped fighting the drug and fell back. Donovan finally relaxed his guard and took a good look at her.
“You’re all right.”
More of a satisfied statement than a question. Suddenly stiff and awkward, she nodded. “Thanks to you.”
If Laurel expected he might take her in his arms and tell her he loved her, she was disappointed. And yet, the way he was looking at her, his eyes devouring her face, she was certain he had something to say. Whatever it was, she wanted to hear it, but he waited a moment too long.
Rrraa-aaa-woooo…
Shivers slid down Laurel’s spine as the young voice called to the night. “Hopeful? He’s talking to me!”
Her wolf may have saved both of their lives.
Staring at Donovan, willing him to tell her what was in his heart, she returned the wolf’s call, her thankful, sad song joined by members of the pack…
…the chorus being completed by Donovan, the real alpha.
“DAD JUST CAME OUT of the coma,” Aileen said the moment Donovan arrived at intensive care with dawn only a breath away. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she approached him. “No amnesia, and he recognized us.”
“That’s great.” Donovan hugged his sister before she could throw herself against him. He was looking at his brother when he said, “And you can both get some sleep in a real bed. We got the guy.”
“Thank God,” Skelly said.
Aileen pulled back. “What about Laurel? Where is she?”
“Laurel’s fine. She was still at the sheriffs office when I left.”
“Why?”
“What happened?”
Donovan gave them the short version, leaving out his own heartache. He hadn’t missed those disparaging remarks Laurel had made about him. And that she cared about Will Bancroft would have been obvious, even if he hadn’t heard her say so. He’d wanted to ask her about her feelings for him, but the words had stuck in his throat.
“So, I came right from the sheriffs office. Do you think I can see him?”
“Absolutely,” Skelly said. “Dad’s resting, but only because we insisted. He thinks he can get up and walk right out of here.”
Straight-faced, Donovan asked, “How can one man be so stubborn?” Then when his siblings looked at him in disbelief, he said, “Lighten up. You’d think you never heard a joke before.”
“Not from you we haven’t,” Aileen murmured. “What’s come over you?”
Laurel, his heart answered.
But all he said was, “Just happy we all came out of this alive.”
A few minutes later, he stood outside his father’s door, trying to work up the nerve to say what he had to. As if sensing his presence, the old man turned his head.
“Donovan?”
Unable to put off the moment any longer, he entered the room.
“Father.” The word came stiffly through his lips. It would take some getting used to. “You had us all worried.”
“What about you? And that young woman—”
“Everything is fine. Let’s save the details for later, when you’re stronger.”
His father nodded. “I’ll look forward to it.”
Donovan cleared his throat and began what he had to say. “Skelly insists I’m a lot like you, so this is really hard for me…” He gave his father the opportunity to jump in. When his parent remained silent, his watery eyes filled with emotion, Donovan said, “I’m, uh, sorry I never gave you a real chance before, but I’d like for us to get to know one another if we can.”
“I’d like that, too. Son.”
“Thank God!”
Donovan turned to see his mother standing in the doorway.
“Veronica?”
“Yes, Raymond, I’m here.”
He held out his hand. She crossed the room and took it. Then found Donovan’s hand with her other.
“Everything’s my fault and I’m so sorry,” she said.
“What for?” Donovan asked.
“Keeping you two apart all these years.”
“That wasn’t your doing.”
“It was. I handled everything so badly. Neither one of you knows the whole truth.”
“Veronica?”
“Let me tell it while I hav
e the courage, Raymond.” She faced her son. “I was a sophomore in college when I met your father. I was very political, wrapped up in rights for Native Americans and in the early effort to get us out of Viet Nam. Your father had recently come from Ireland, a country at war with itself. The situation wasn’t much better here at the time. Raymond wanted to change things, but through the system. He was so full of fire. I lost myself m my wild Irish lover until…” She sighed. “He was just getting started in politics and I knew he could make a difference…but not with me at his side. My own politics and connections could ruin his career. So I told him I was leaving him and came back to Wisconsin.”
“And I was fool enough to let her go,” his father said gruffly. “I had no idea—”
“Wait a minute,” Donovan protested. “Weren’t you pregnant with me?”
“I didn’t know until later. I worked up the courage to tell Raymond, only…I waited too long.”
“I had already married Aileen’s mother on the rebound.”
Donovan reeled at the admission. His father hadn’t abandoned his mother as he’d always believed. It had been the other way around. And she’d thought she was being noble.
“I cursed Veronica the day she ran from me, but I never stopped loving her. Poor LaVerne. I chose her because she could help me politically. I was trying to protect myself. The first woman-I loved—Skelly’s mother—died. And the second walked out on me. I never wanted to be vulnerable to love again. But I made a big mistake, one corrected by a divorce that devastated your sister.” He held his son’s gaze as he said, “Seems I can’t stop hurting the people I love.”
Which was the closest his father had ever come to saying he loved him, Donovan realized…just as he realized his parents still loved each other.
If his father had only listened to his heart and gone after his mother, maybe everything would have been different for them. And him.
“Listen,” he said anxiously, letting go of his mother’s hand. “I have to get out of here. I need to take care of something before it’s too late.”
“Give Laurel our love,” Veronica called after him.
Donovan was going to take Skelly’s advice. He only hoped he hadn’t already blown his chance with the woman he loved.
HUDDLED ON A BENCH against the early morning cold, Laurel waited for the bus that would take her out of Donovan’s life for good.
Maybe it was for the best.
Then why was she so heartsick?
“You know the man has a block of wood between his ears. You could have said, ‘Trapper Dan, I love you and if you want to get rid of me, you’ll have to tell me you don’t feel the same about me.’” She couldn’t help chuckling at her own cleverness. “Since he’d never express his feelings one way or the other, you wouldn’t have to go.”
“Don’t go.”
Laurel’s heart stopped. Then began to race.
Suddenly breathless, she muttered, “Great. Now I’m hearing things.”
“I thought that’s what you wanted…for me to say what’s in my heart.”
Donovan rounded the bench and sat next to her, but Laurel was afraid to look at him.
“Don’t go,” he said again.
“But I have a whole life in—”
“Change it.”
Demanding, as usual.
“And animals. Lots of animals,” she warned him.
“Plenty of room for them up here.”
She sighed. “And medical debts—”
“We’ll take care of them.”
“We?” Finally, Laurel tilted her face toward Donovan. Her heart pounding furiously, she asked, “What are you trying to say?”
Donovan’s expression was so serious, her heart wrenched. He was having enough trouble beating around the bush. Maybe it was enough that he asked her not to go.
Taking her hand, he said, “I’ve never met a woman like you before.”
“Like what?”
“One who talks to animals.”
“That’s it?”
“And who has the guts to crawl into a wolf den.”
“How did you know?”
“I talk to animals, remember. We’d make some team, working side by side.”
“You want to give me a job as a tracker?” she asked, only half joking. Why couldn’t he just say it? “I have no real training.”
“I could teach you.”
A roar up the street caught her attention. The bus to Chicago was just down the block. And Laurel decided Donovan’s not wanting her to go wasn’t enough. She stood and looked away, concentrated on the approaching bus.
“Laurel?”
“Uh-huh?”
She refused to look at him lest he see the tears in her eyes.
“Actually…that working side-by-side thing…I had something else in mind…I was considering starting a pack of my own.”
The bus was slowing.
“If you’re trying to tell me you love me, you’d better—”
Taking her in his arms, he shouted, “I love you!”
Her eyes widened. “Omigod, you said it.”
“So, what do you say? Will you stay?”
Waving the bus on, she threw her arms around his neck and laughed through tears of happiness.
Then she lifted her face and howled.
Epilogue
For the first time in his life, Donovan entered his father’s home without reservations.
Everything was different.
Not the house itself or its furnishings.
He was different.
And with Laurel at his side, he could face anything.
“Donovan, you took long enough getting here from the church,” Aileen said. “I thought you weren’t coming.”
“It’s the parking,” Laurel grumbled. “I thought we were going to have to walk a mile…and then someone cleared out right in front.”
“Laurel, I need your help.”
Before Donovan could protest, his sister dragged her off.
Standing at the liquor cart with Tyler Leighton, Skelly waved him over. “How about a drink? We were just getting set to toast Miss Kelly McKenna Leighton.”
“I’ll drink to that. Whatever you’re having.”
It was in honor of the newest addition that the family had gathered together. A christening. A time to celebrate.
Holding Kelly, Keelin smiled at him. “Gran would be well satisfied with herself if she saw you with your Laurel.”
“The McKenna Legacy at work. I was helpless to resist.”
He and Laurel would wed the following month.
And Donovan wondered about his father and mother being next in line. They hadn’t made any commitments yet, but from the way they were looking at one another, he suspected that would come.
His brother handed him his drink. “Here you go, bro.”
“Thanks. And, Skelly, I’ve been meaning to say something to you.”
“Uh-oh. That the truce is over?”
“That I forgive you.”
“For what?”
Donovan doubted that his brother even remembered the lie. “For whatever transgression you need forgiveness for.”
Skelly laughed and yelled, “Laurel, you’re a marvel!”
From the couch, Roz gave a yelp. “My water just broke!”
From the looks of her, Donovan was surprised she hadn’t delivered long ago.
“You’re in labor?” Skelly rushed to her side. “Why didn’t you say something?”
“I didn’t want to spoil the day for anyone.”
“Don’t be standing around and gawking now,”
Keelin said. “Let’s get the poor woman to the hospital.”
“Ooohhh, I hope I make it.”
“They’re coming? Anyone know what to do if we don’t make it in time?”
Amused at his brother’s panic, Donovan volunteered, “I’ve had some experience assisting births…of wolves.”
“Leave the poor man alone,” Laurel whispered.
He drew her to him and kissed her.
Everyone was rushing around…getting coats… helping Roz to the door.
“Donovan, what are you waiting for?” Aileen demanded of him. “You’re parked right out front. Aren’t you going to drive them?”
“You want me to go to the hospital?”
“Are you part of this family or not?”
“Absolutely.”
He grabbed Laurel’s hand and rushed to the door.
For the first time in his life, Donovan felt like a McKenna.
eISBN: 978-0-373-22483-4
NEVER CRY WOLF
Copyright © 1998 by Patricia Pinianski
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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Printed In U.S.A.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Excerpt
Dear Reader
Dedication
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Epigraph
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Never Cry Wolf Page 19