The Wolf Code Forever

by Angela Foxxe

  “Even if I don’t get on that plane tomorrow?”

  “Even if,” he promised.

  He tilted her chin and leaned down, kissing her with such aching sweetness that she let a tear escape before she could stop it.

  “I’m not going to let you down,” he said when she pulled away.

  “I believe you,” she said. “I believe in you. I know that you won’t let Evie down.”

  “Get some rest. You have all day to decide what you want to do.”

  She nodded, then he opened the door to her Audi and helped her in.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow” almost escaped from her lips, but she settled for something that wasn’t a promise she might not be able to keep.

  “Sweet dreams,” she said. “And thank you for everything.”

  His large hand covered hers for a moment, and then he was gone, going into the rented cabin without a backward glance.

  She eased the car away from the cabin, then drove slowly down the road and out onto the highway.

  A glance at the clock had her groaning. It was so late, and she still had quite a drive ahead of her. But it would give her time to think, and hopefully by the time she was home, she’d be exhausted enough to fall right to sleep and let her subconscious deal with everything that was weighing on her.

  She kept her eyes on the woods that surrounded the highway, half expecting Jessica Baker to pop out of the woods at any moment. But that wasn’t possible. They were almost a hundred miles from where she’d escaped, and there was going to be an entire group of specially trained bears in the woods looking for her all night. And Ty had assured Senora that the bears would take good care of Jessica, and she would emerge as Naomi Martin, the woman she used to be. Maybe she would forget all about Evie, and a relative of the little girl would step up and take her in. Then, Naomi could go back to the life she’d had before she’d been kidnapped and turned into a mindless automaton, and Evie would still be safe. No matter what, Matt Baker was going to spend the rest of his life behind bars.

  Senora wouldn’t rest until she made sure that happened.

  CHAPTER 14

  Michael was still standing outside his house when the SUVs pulled up, and men in black fatigues spilled out of the vehicle and stood at the ready. Michael looked relaxed, but on the inside, he was tense. J was not going to be happy the woman had been in his possession and she’d gotten away. And then, there was Senora. J seemed to have a vested interest in keeping Senora away from the world of shifters. She’d gotten close on her own a few times, and when Ty popped up as a consultant, J had decided to let it play out and see if it kept her away from whatever he was trying to protect her from. But that had backfired too, and it seemed that Senora was drawn to shifters and, more specifically, to Ty. Everyone could see it, but J still insisted on bringing her into the office and keeping her as far away from shifters as possible.

  Having Senora interview Naomi had been an utter disaster. No one knew that the agent who had picked her up would bring her to the office instead of the hospital. They’d had a plan to grab Naomi from the hospital, but she’d insisted that she was fine and wanted to talk to an agent as soon as possible. Senora was usually the agent that would handle a circumstance like that, and Agent Patterson hadn’t been in the office to stop it before the encounter had happened. No one knew why he was so worried about protecting Senora, but it was becoming an issue.

  Not that Michael was going to tell him. And he doubted any other bear would stand up and challenge J.

  When the man finally stepped out of the SUV, he and Michael locked eyes, and Michael met him halfway. J was older than he’d been the last time Michael had seen him, but he was still the fierce, powerful presence that he’d always been.

  Michael put his hand out, and J took it, but there were no pleasantries.

  “How did she get away?” J asked. “More importantly, how did she end up here?”

  “A friend found her on the side of the road, blubbering about being chased by bears,” he lied. “When he called me, I had him bring her here. By the time I put two and two together, she’d slipped out of the car and disappeared.”

  J stood there in silence for a moment, and Michael was sure the man was going to call bullshit on his explanation. But, if he knew that Senora was involved, Michael was sure he would have asked how Senora was involved instead of the way he’d phrased the question. It was a gamble, but Michael wasn’t going to change his story now.

  He waited for J to digest what he’d said, and when the older man finally nodded, he was relieved.

  One bullet dodged. Now to figure out where Naomi had gone and help the bears find her.

  “Do you have a map of the area?” J asked. “Preferably satellite so we can see the lay of the land and rule out as many directions as possible.”

  “Of course, sir,” Michael said.

  He led the way into his home and used a wireless keyboard to pull up the latest satellite map of the area surrounding his property onto the massive flat screen that took up half of one wall in his living room.

  “How recent is this one?” J asked.

  “It’s the up to the minute one,” Michael said, then realized he sounded boastful, but he couldn’t help it.

  He’d worked hard to bypass the software that kept the public a full two years behind and kept the country safe from foreign enemies that might seek to use the satellite images to strategically destroy their country.

  “Good,” J said. “Now, tell me, how long was she gone before we arrived?”

  “No more than an hour.”

  “That’s good. She can’t have gone far, and I’m sure she’s exhausted from surviving the past few days.”

  J took the keyboard from the end table Michael had set it on and used his finger to draw areas on the map.

  “Team one, you’ll take this area and work your way away from the house. Team two, start here and work your way out, team three, you take the area across the highway to the south.” He looked at Hank and Tristan. “The two of you are going to go with Michael. I don’t know what your issue is, but because of your insubordination, this woman now knows our secret. We had a hell of a time getting her where she was already, and she has fought reprogramming from day one. We don’t need any more complications with her case. I’m not going to have my reputation ruined by two hotheads that can’t keep their egos in check.”

  Tristan and Hank looked apologetic, but neither man said anything. J nodded, then turned back to Michael.

  “I’ll stay here. It’s a strong woman that can thwart so many and still manage to get away from the best and brightest even when they know she’s a flight risk. I want to meet this woman in person before you fix her. There’s something special about her, and I’m wondering if I can add her to my unit.”

  “Doesn’t her family want her back?” Michael asked.

  J shrugged.

  “She can work out of the Spokane office. There’s no reason she can’t work with us. Look at what she’s been through, and she’s still going. Even if she had help, she’s still beyond anyone or anything we’ve seen in a long time.”

  J’s implication was clear, but Michael decided not to acknowledge the implication that Naomi had not been working alone. For the most part, Naomi had been completely alone in her journey, and Michael was going to stick with that story until his dying breath.

  The men gathered together in their groups, and Michael went over the plan with the two men that had been assigned to him. He made no mention of their personal issues, instead mapping out the difficulties of the terrain they’d be heading out on. They were the smallest group, but it didn’t matter. Michael was determined to get this woman back to the Campus and get her well again. There was the matter about the little girl, but they would deal with that when they caught Naomi. Matt Baker was a monster, and they wouldn’t be the good guys if they left a toddler to fend for herself just because the woman who had raised her wasn’t her biological mother. Little Evie had no one except
Naomi. Whether Naomi would still feel that way when she regained her memory and went back to being herself again was anyone’s guess. But they would take care of everyone involved, and they would take down HUB in the process. They hadn’t been ready yet, but Naomi was forcing their hand, and they had more information now than they ever had. It was time to take down the giant. The trial and the media coverage were sure to be sensational, and after watching the story unfold, it would be a long time before the public trusted their neighbors again.

  It was probably for the best, but Michael couldn’t help but wonder how many people would be completely blindsided by all this. It wasn’t just the cult or the fact that your nice, helpful neighbor down the street could be bait for a group like HUB. And women like Naomi Martin fell into the trap all the time.

  But Heartsong had gotten more than they bargained for with Naomi, and her strength and wit were too much for the Program. Naomi had retained a piece of herself somehow, and when she’d needed to be Naomi and push Jessica Baker to the side, she had done just that. She was confused now, but it would all fall into place, and Michael hoped that Naomi would thank them for their efforts in the end.

  “Let’s get going,” Michael said, leading the two men out the back door and across the field to the woods behind his house.

  Of all the places she could have gone, this one was the least likely. Going west or east would have taken her through the woods and directly to the highway they had used to come to Michael’s house. Since she was awake and aware of the highway, it made sense that she would head to the road and make her way back toward D.C. on foot until she was sure it was safe for her to hitchhike. Then, she would head back to her house, and who knew what she had planned? If she was anything like Michael imagined she was, then she would go straight to the Baker house to take Evie. Or she would go to the press and make sure everyone knew what kind of man Matt really was, ensuring that no one would ever doubt that she was the victim in all this.

  Going north would take her to another road eventually, but she would spend most of the night in the woods in the dark. There weren’t too many wild predators in the woods on his property because Michael routinely ran the acreage behind his house on four paws, and that had scared so many of the indigenous predators away. It was as if his scent carried for miles, and he didn’t mind the quiet. But he doubted that Naomi would go this way, and they were only going to rule out this direction. He was expecting his cell phone to ring any minute to inform him that she’d been found. This wouldn’t take long. After all, she was only one woman, and there were eighteen bears in the woods looking for her. She’d gotten away from the original six, but she was truly alone this time, and she was grossly outnumbered.

  Michael walked into the woods with Tristan and Hank following behind him. They stayed in human form, trying not to scare Naomi any more than she already was. She’d been through hell, and she was halfway through deprogramming when she’d escaped. She was fragile, and anything could send her into the depths of her own broken mind. They didn’t want to risk that. Naomi was too special.

  “Any sign of her?” one of the men asked quietly.

  Michael shook his head. There was no sign of the woman, and they’d already covered a quarter of a mile. She should have left some kind of trail, but it was looking more and more like she had gone another route. Still, until his cell phone vibrated in his pocket, he was going to assume that she could be in this section of the woods.

  The fog was still dense, though it was finally settling in amongst the trees and leaving the trail open and visible. The ground was damp from the fog hanging over it for so long, and as they continued, Michael looked at the now clear path and held his hand up suddenly to signal the other two men to stop.

  He squatted down and examined the footprint in the thin layer of damp dirt. It wasn’t a very big shoeprint, but it was obviously a hiking shoe. The treads didn’t show any signs of wear, which led Michael to believe that the shoes were relatively new. He held his own foot beside the print, and his foot was nearly twice the size. This was definitely a woman’s footprint.

  The prints continued into the forest. After signaling the two men silently, Michael followed the trail that Naomi had inadvertently left behind. He thought about alerting J, but judging by the footprints, they weren’t that far behind her, and he didn’t want the light from the cell phone to alert her to his presence. The length of her stride suggested that she was running, so there was no way she could hear them over her own breathing and heartbeat. Michael and his men had the upper hand, and he didn’t want to lose the element of surprise with this one. She was too shrewd to let his guard down for one minute. They were going to play this like they would capturing one of their own. That was the only way that this was going to go as planned.

  Naomi was good, but Michael was better.

  Michael picked up the pace and the two men behind him followed suit. They scanned the right and the left sides of the trail, and Michael kept his eyes locked straight ahead. She was close, and they were going to find her.

  He faltered a little when he saw something cut across his line of vision straight ahead. The trail curved there, and he was surprised that she didn’t have a better lead. But he didn’t jog faster. She wasn’t that far ahead, and even though he’d only caught a glimpse of her, she didn’t appear to be frantic. That meant that she didn’t know that she was being followed, and he wanted to keep it that way.

  He signaled to the men again, his steps easy and light. Michael didn’t bother to turn his head to see if the two men agreed to his silent orders. J had put them on notice for their behavior earlier in the day, and they would be on their best behavior no matter what at this point, or they would be looking for another job.

  The trail curved, then straightened for quite some distance. When Michael peered into the darkness ahead and saw the source of the flash of Naomi he thought he’d seen, he cursed under his breath. Well ahead of him on the trail was a lone deer, and with the foggy air, he’d mistaken the doe for Naomi.

  But that didn’t change the fact that he had seen boot prints in the forest, and despite his mistake, Naomi was in the woods. Somewhere.

  “Maybe we should call in reinforcements,” a voice whispered behind him.

  “No,” Michael said, turning and glaring at the man. “She’s here somewhere, and I’m sure the three of us can deal with one suburban housewife.”

  He turned back to face the trail, but before he could take another step, he heard a strange sound like liquid gushing out in a sea of foam, and then suddenly, his face was on fire and he couldn’t breathe.

  He hit his knees and gagged, trying to call out to the other men. When the sound came again, he heard the other two men hit their knees and begin to retch.

  Bear spray, Michael thought in anger. Where had she gotten bear spray, and why was she using it on them?

  No sooner had he asked the question than he was hit with another shot. He gasped and writhed, angry that she hadn’t sprayed them and ran, but also impressed with her skills. Most women that were able to subdue an attacker ran too soon and were quickly caught. By staying and spraying them again, she ensured that they would be struggling to breathe long enough for her to disappear into the woods. She was smarter than they’d given her credit for, and she was getting away.

  Tears streamed down Michael’s face, but he was unable to open his tortured eyes. He reached into his pocket, trying to get the phone out and somehow dial J without being able to see his touch screen. Without a standard keypad to feel around, he couldn’t even find the numbers to unlock the phone. He was stuck until he could see again, and he didn’t think that was going to happen any time soon.

  He was gagging and coughing now, his body struggling to rid itself of the burning spray as he wheezed loudly. Naomi was long gone, but she could probably still hear them. The other men were taking the bear spray better than most would, but they were in pain, and they weren’t in any better shape than he was.

  “N
aomi!” he yelled in a last-ditch effort to convince her to stop running. “We’re trying to help you.”

  But his words bounced off the trees and went flat into the fog. Even if Naomi had heard him, she was on a mission, and she wasn’t going to stop and chat with her would-be captors. She was a woman on a mission, and Michael had underestimated her big time.

  *

  Senora was packed and doublechecking her locks, making sure that the oven she’d never used was off when her doorbell rang.

  She tensed, pulling a gun out of one of her kitchen drawers and moving along the wall to the door with it by her side. It was really early in the morning, and even though she didn’t need to leave for the airport for a few hours, she couldn’t help the excitement that had found her awake at dawn and packed a few hours later. But her driver wouldn’t be at the apartment until noon, and it wasn’t even ten yet.

  “Who is it?” she called out.

  “It’s Ty,” came a familiar voice.

  She let him in, wrinkling her nose and giving him a look of confusion.

  “I thought you were going to let me decide,” she said, gesturing to the suitcases that were in the hall. “Didn’t you trust me?”

  “We’re going to have to miss that flight,” Ty said.

  “What? Why?”

  “Naomi got away from the bears.”

  “Which bears?”

  “All of them. She disabled Michael and two others with bear spray, then she managed to find someone driving down the road to pick her up. She could be anywhere by now, and J called me this morning and asked me to bring you in to help.”

  “Why didn’t he call me?”

  “Your work phone is off, and you left your personal phone in the Jeep,” he said with a wry grin, handing her phone over.

  “How did he get your number?”

  “I’d imagine he knows more about me than I care to think about.”