by Renee George
“Would you consider going back to town and just dragging everyone’s ass here for a rescue? That’d be really great.”
He growled. Awesome, the spirit was getting pissy with me.
“What?”
“Who are you talking to, Haddock?” Sheila asked. I ignored her.
I watched Judah jump up on the post, and I moved over and craned my neck to see what he was getting excited about. There was a hook sticking out of the backside.
On it were some keys.
I reached through the bars; my arms were short the hook by three feet. Sheila’s cage was even farther from the pole than mine was, and considering Chav was injured and out of sight, I didn’t think she would have a chance at getting to the keys. Quickly, I started formulating a plan. Not a very good one, mind you, but at it was better than waiting for an untimely death.
With purpose, I stripped off my torn pantyhose and started stretching them.
“What are you doing?” Sheila asked.
Oh, so now she wanted to talk? I ignored her.
Picking up one two-inch black pump, I pounded the heel against the ground. It loosened. I worked it back and forth with my hands.
“You’re going to get yourself tranq’ed again,” Sheila said.
“If you can’t be constructive,” I told her, wiggling the heel as the nail in it slowly gave. “Then just shut the hell up. I don’t need a critique from the peanut gallery.”
“Shut up, Sheila!” Chav yelled.
Sheila screeched her frustration, but finally stopped talking.
I tied one end of the pantyhose around the space between the sole and the spike. I swung it around and the shoe stayed attached to the hose. Woot! One small step for womankind. If MacGyver could blow up a bridge with chewing gum and aluminum foil, I could get a nail off a post only a short distance away.
I stuck my arm through the bars again, this time with hose and shoe in tow. I swung them out and fell short of the pole and nowhere near the hook and keys.
Shoot! Where was the chewing gum and foil when you needed it? I tried again.
The shoe hit metal with a thunk.
At least I hit the pole that time. Encouraging.
“What are you doing?” Sheila asked again.
I screwed my lips into the right position to throw again. It always worked when I played darts. It was all about getting the mouth set just right. I swung the pantyhose wide and the shoe careened around the pole about a foot beneath the keys. “Shit.”
“Sunny!”
“There’s a set of keys over there, for shit’s sake. I’m trying to get them.”
“What can I do to help?”
Oh sure, now she wanted to help.
I swung the shoe higher and harder, then let it go. It flew up and caught on the hook. “Yes!” I gave the pantyhose a slight tug. The shoe was stuck on the hook. “Damn it.”
I tugged again. A slight tearing sound made my heart beat harder and louder. The damn shoe was stuck and the nylons were ripping.
Fuck!
I yanked again, harder this time, putting all my strength into the pull.
The shoe flew off the hook, sending the keys to the ground and me to my ass.
“You almost had it,” Sheila said with enthusiasm.
Sure, now she was all about the Sunny-lovin’.
I reeled in the makeshift grappling hook. If I could get the shoe to the other side of the keys, I might be able to drag them in.
The bay doors slid open again.
“Sunny,” Chavvah hissed.
Sheila dropped to the floor and balled herself in the corner of her cage.
I didn’t need the warning. I stuffed the shoe and hose under my dress and sat down. They didn’t know I was awake yet. So, I leaned against the bars and pretended to be unconscious. I didn’t want to take a chance they’d shoot me again.
Next I silently prayed they wouldn’t notice the keys were no longer where they were supposed to be.
No such luck.
“How’d these get on the ground?” one of the guys asked. I didn’t peek to see which one.
Insert inward groan. Ugh. I could hear the shuffle of feet getting closer to the cage. “This one’s still out? Damn, usually it don’t affect them but a couple of hours.”
“She still alive?”
“I don’t know. Check her.”
“You check her.”
Great, they were fighting over who was going to check my pulse. A few seconds later, I felt an arm brush against me when one of our captors reached through the bars. My pulse raced and I could feel the sweat running down my back as his fingers touched my neck.
Fight or flight, Sunny!
Since there was nowhere to go, I chose fight. I opened my eyes, grabbed his wrist with both hands, and yanked him with everything I had head-first into the metal bars.
He yelped as he dropped down to his knees.
I kept a hold of his arm and pushed it sideways until I could hear the snap, then swiveled on my ass and kicked him in the ribs. His body hunched over. It was Scarface. The guy who’d shot me. I wrapped the pantyhose around his neck before he could get his bearings, then pulled him, smashing his face into the bars again. I saw the butt of his pistol in the side holster at his waist. Thank heavens for adrenaline!
“Hey!” Mustache Man shouted. He was trying to grab Scarface’s feet and get him away from me.
Sheila had shifted into full-on therian, tall, large, hairy, long tail, and boobs. She roared her frustration while pounding at her bars of her cage.
I screamed as loud as I could, which stopped all activity. I leveled my gaze at the uninjured guard. “I will snap his fucking neck. I am stronger, faster, and will not hesitate. I will go all furry on his ass and eat his heart. Then after I will eat yours. Do you understand me?” Total bluff. But it got him to pause long enough for me to reach the tranquilizer gun.
I said a silent thanks to Ruth, as I pushed the slide forward, took the safety off, and shot him in the stomach. Not exactly where I’d been aiming, but it worked just the same. Mustache went down.
A flash of Scarface around the dinner table with a wife and two kids made me sick. “You should be ashamed of yourself, Bob. How can you even face your family when you go home at night?”
A bellow to rival any berserker resounded off the metal walls of the Morton building.
At the entrance stood my blue-eyed Adonis. My coyote, my lover, my hero. “Babe!”
My heart sang. He’d found me. I’d been impossible to find, but he’d found me.
Babel shifted, the fur on his body bristling out as his bones and muscles formed and reformed, causing his jeans and shirt to rip at the seams. My incredible hunk.
His nose transformed to take on coyote-like length. He was broad, even taller than he usually was, and God, he was savagely beautiful.
I let go of the pantyhose and pistol. He howled an angry roar as he swooped down on my broken captor and threw him like a rag doll against the metal pole.
Quickly he descended on the cage door, beating at the lock with his fists trying to get to me.
“The keys are over there.” My voice sounded small even in my own ears. “Over there.” I pointed to the floor where they’d dropped.
When I was free of my prison, I threw my arms around him and cried. I’d been brave for as long as I could stand it, and now I just wanted to be held. “Oh, Babe. I can’t believe you’re here. I can’t believe it.”
I ran my fingers through the warm thickness of his fur. His body changed and shifted again under my touch until he turned back to human form. “You had me so scared,” he whispered.
“Uh, hellooo?” Sheila said. “I hate to interrupt this beautiful moment, but could someone get me out of this fucking cage?”
“Chavvah’s here,” I whispered with a ragged breath. “I haven’t seen her yet, but she’s alive.”
Chapter 23
Appar
ently, we’d been held in some kind of private hunting compound. Outside the Morton building laid a vast expanse of wooded area with a road leading up a hill to the right. I wanted to know how Babel had found me, but the explanation could wait until we were safely out of there.
Chav looked godawful. She had bruises and cuts all over her face and her left eye was swollen shut and damned near black in color. Her right arm was a mangled mess, confirming they’d broken it, and it was already setting wrong. The same with her legs and foot. They were twisted and bent in unnatural angles. What else had they done to her? Her chestnut-brown hair fell over her good eye, and I could see it was going to be a question for later. Much, much later.
Eager to leave, I searched for Babel’s truck.
“It’s up at the house.” He gestured towards the road.
“I’m out of here,” Sheila muttered and started off up the drive.
“You’re not going anywhere, bitch.” Chavvah, who was in Babe’s arms, pointed at Sheila. “She’s responsible for Judah dying.”
Sheila began to back up, but I pointed the dart gun at her. “Don’t even think about it.”
Babel growled. “The sheriff’s up at the big house,” he told Chav, than focused on me. “We took out the men at the road and cabin, and I didn’t wait for the sheriff to find you.”
“How?”
“I followed your scent from the house.” He leaned over, a feat with Chav in his arms, and nuzzled my neck. “I’d know it anywhere.”
“No, I mean, how did you find me? And where the hell are we?”
“The sheriff figured it out. Those names you gave him, he cross-referenced names in the hunting license database and found out that this place was owned by three business men who vacation down here, almost always in July. A John Weatherly, Carl Perkins, and Samuel Wheeldon. They’d been in trouble with the Department of Conservation in the past, and we took a chance.” His expression grew fierce. “I’d have torn up the entire state to find you, if that’s what it took. When you didn’t come back to the party…God, Sunny. Don’t do that ever again.”
I melted, inside and out. “Never again. I swear.”
“Uh, what the hell?” Chav asked. “Am I missing something here?”
Yikes. Best friend’s baby bro. I forgot about that hurdle. “We’ll talk about it later.”
“Damn skippy.” She leaned her hand on Babel’s shoulder. “Sheila isn’t the mastermind, by the way.”
“I know,” I said. I’d remembered the nails clicking. “It’s Neville Lutjen.”
“How’d you know?” Chav ignored the look of surprise on her brother’s face.
“When he attacked me in his shifted form, he clicked his claws together in a distinct beat. He had drummed the same staccato beat with his fingernails on his desk when I’d gone to his office. I’ve noticed it at other times, but it didn’t click until right before he shot me with the dart. Add in that his wife needed expensive treatments and the man became the number one suspect on my list.” I looked at Babe and Chav. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner.” I really was a bad psychic.
The sound of barking averted my attention, and I saw Judah up on the road. His body seemed to glow as he paced back and forth. I patted Babel’s back “Judah’s trying to get our attention. I think he wants to lead us somewhere.”
“Wait, what?” Sheila asked. “Judah’s dead. How’s he going to lead you anywhere?”
Chav buried her head in Babel’s chest.
“I know,” Babe said, patting her gently. “But in a way, he’s still here. Sunny can see him.”
“Sunny,” Chav said. She turned her bruised and swollen face to look at me. Her red-eyed gaze gutted me.
“It’s true. Billy Bob told me what you suspected about me, and you were right.”
She nodded and put her head back on Babe’s chest.
His gaze met mine. “Where?”
“I don’t know.” I pointed up the road with my free hand and jabbed Sheila in the ribs with the gun to keep her from getting any funny ideas about escaping. One thing I didn’t understand—well, more than one thing, but this one was bothering me. “Why did Neville put you in the cage? If you were his partner? I don’t get it.”
Sheila barked a sharp, high noise. “The fucker killed Judah. That wasn’t part of our deal. It was never part of the deal!”
Lordy. She really was cray-cray. What the hell had she thought happened to Judah? He’d gone off to the live in the land of lollipops and fairy dust? I’d never thought of Sheila as dumb, but she had me reevaluating my assessment.
I prodded her along while we followed the ghost coyote and headed up the road as it unfolded to the large house. It looked like a freaking country club. Backwoods chic, if I had to give it a name. The place was completely cedar-sided, three stories with party decks and full-on landscaping.
The distraction of its grandeur was all Sheila needed. She pushed me backward. I shouted, “No, stop her!” But it was too late; she was already shifting into coyote form as she bounded into the nearby woods.
“Let her go, Sunny.” Babel said. “She won’t get far. I promise.” He squeezed my hand.
I nodded and reluctantly focused my attention back to the house. The sheriff’s vehicle, Babel’s truck, and two other patrol cars were parked out front, along with two dark Suburban SUVs. Like the one that had run Jo Jo and I off the road. Tyler Thompson stood beside one of the patrol cars. The front door was open, and the dome light illuminated the interior. Three men, I assumed the other “keepers”, were handcuffed in the backseat. Billy Bob, his dreads pulled back from his face, ran down to meet us and took Chav from Babel.
“Doc,” she said, her voice weak and tired.
“Shh,” he told her. “I’m going to get you fixed up. Don’t you worry.”
I felt a rush of relief. I knew Billy Bob wasn’t Babe’s favorite person, but I was glad to have him here. Chav needed more help than we could give her, and we couldn’t keep her safe if something happened.
At the front steps of the big house, Judah ran up them and through the door. I took Babel’s hand, a sense of dread taking hold of me. “We have to go inside.”
Oh man, I didn’t want to go inside. I had a feeling whatever was inside would not be pleasant.
Babel put both his hands around mine. “We cleared the place. It’s safe.”
I wasn’t worried about the bad guys. There was something else in here. Something I knew—because I could feel it—would change the way everyone who entered looked at the world for the rest of their lives.
Judah waited in the foyer for Babel and me. There was a large staircase leading to the upstairs, like what you’d see in a fancy plantation house in Georgia. Judah’s green eyes stared up at me before he turned and loped behind the stairs.
Completely nerve-wracked, I began to shake. My legs were like puddles of warm Jell-O, refusing to cooperate. Babel slid his arm across my shoulder and his strength firmed my resolve.
We walked around the stairs to a set of French doors with wildlife scenes etched into the glass. I turned the knob and pulled the left side open.
The trophy room.
I dropped to my knees retching.
Near the doorway, a mountain lion had been stuffed and mounted on a rock, as if lying in wait for its prey. I put my hand over my mouth. Rose Ann.
And not just hers. Animal heads lined the walls above a high cedar wainscoting. Moose, elk, lion, rhinoceros, then coyote, coyote, deer, coyote, bear, coyote, and…
Oh, God. Tears fell from my eyes as I held my breath. I saw each of the therians as they were hunted. Images of slaughter after slaughter flooded my mind. My chest tightened. Too much. It was too much.
“No!” I heard Babel’s hoarse cry.
Helplessly, I watched as he stumbled forward to the trophy on the end.
Judah.
Not only had these therians been caged and hunted like animals, they’d been deca
pitated as decorations. Their murderers had sat in large leather chairs, admiring their kills while they’d sipped whiskey and smoked cigars.
Sheriff Sid Taylor came around the corner at that moment. He dropped the notebook he carried and turned deathly pale. “How could this happen?” he asked, staggering back. “This can’t happen.”
“Sheriff?” I heard Connelly’s voice from out in the foyer.
I let go of the breath I’d been holding. “Don’t let him see this, Sheriff. No one should have to see this.”
“I have to get some air,” Sheriff Taylor whispered, his voice barely audible.
Babel was methodically unhooking the heads and placing them on the floor, his grief finding purpose. If I had been a stronger woman, I’d have stayed to help. But I wasn’t. I needed to get out of the claustrophobic room before I hyperventilated.
I ran from the house, falling once again to me knees as my feet touched the soil in the yard. Every nerve ending in my body was alight with sensation. Eldin Farraday put his hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t touch me!” I screamed. His palm alone made my skin feel like a thousand needles were puncturing my flesh. “Just stay back.” I heaved a breath, trying to gain some control, but my body wasn’t so obliging.
Farraday walked away, leaving me to my choking grief.
While I was still on my knees, Judah started whining and pacing around me. I glanced up too late as a blur of a shape sailed across the air to me and landed on my chest. The brown eyes of the beast glared down at me as it snarled and snapped.
Fucking Sheila!
I threw my left hand up and she latched on with her teeth. Sheila jumped sideways, then tried to twist over me to get a better hold. She wanted control, but she was out of luck. I kicked her vulnerable midsection as she jumped over me again, and with my right hand, I grabbed out for anything close. My fingers closed around a rock.
I cracked her in the head with all the strength I could muster, stunning her for a second. She roared back and brought both her hands together into a collective fist to pummel me. I braced myself for the blow, but before she could strike, a loud blast shook the night air. Sheila looked down at me, shock and disbelief written on her face. Blood trickled from her nose. I shoved her and she fell over, her hand clutching her chest.