by Sadie Hart
“Boss, if it were anyone else you’d be having this conversation yourself. Are you going to be able to make the right calls if you get too close?”
An argument was on his lips, but Brandt bit it back. There was something about Timber that drew him. He wanted her. But it was more than just a physical attraction. He wanted to see her smile, make her laugh, and he loved holding her. He still wanted her. After everything that had happened tonight, knowing he needed to rebuild the space between them, Brandt wanted nothing more than to kiss her again. Make her his.
If it had been one of his Hounds, he’d have reassigned them. So yeah, he knew what Tate was saying.
But he wasn’t about to walk away from Timber either.
Tate rocked back on his heels, uneasy. “Look, I’m not saying it to piss on your turf or some shit like that. It’s dangerous to get too close to a job. I would know.”
“I’m aware.” Brandt forced himself to meet the other Hound’s gaze. “I’m keeping an eye on the situation.”
Tate looked away first, submissive. They both knew there wasn’t a submissive bone in Tate’s body, any more than there was in Brandt’s, but it was a matter of respect. Tate showed a sensitivity which Brandt valued. Which was saying a lot, because Brandt didn’t smell like someone who had it under control. He smelled like a horny teenager who’d gotten too close to losing control.
“You should probably see if you can get her to move tonight. At least temporarily.” Brandt recognized the suggestion for what it was. If he moved Timber out of her house and into protective custody, then there was no reason for Brandt to be her only guard. It’d give him space.
It galled him, but there was more to Tate’s suggestion than just separating them, and Brandt knew it.
“Agreed,” Brandt murmured, his attention drifting back to the bush Wolfe had used before. “He knows her situation here too well, and that gives him the upper hand.”
“I’d also say you need to go home, get some sleep, but I don’t see that happening.”
Home, no. But Timber would be safe there, and the thought of her in his house stirred something inside him, a want, a longing—but it wasn’t professional. And fuck if he hadn’t already come close to breaking every rule in his book tonight.
Brandt turned to look at the house. It loomed in the shadows, a dark silhouette stretching up into the sky. It no longer looked like a safe place. Wolfe had come too close too many times. Tate was right, they needed to move her...the question was, would Timber go?
***
Timber bit her lip as she sat on the couch, watching the shadows move through the artificial lights in the distance. She’d watched the Hounds tape off the crime scene, the pack converging on her front lawn. She’d turned away before her attention could drift to the end of her driveway and the scene she knew was there. She didn’t need another dead face staring back up at her every time she closed her eyes.
She picked at the sweatpants she was wearing...Brandt’s clothes, so they were baggy and kind of comforting...they certainly were better than wandering the house in nothing more than a night shirt. Even with Brandt sleeping on her couch she hadn’t been able to break the habit.
Voices trickled in from outside, and she recognized Brandt’s weary tone. There’d been a woman outside her front door since he’d left, and Timber could hear the Hound talking to Brandt now. “Been quiet. She watched from the windows for a few, turned on the television about a half hour ago. I’ve checked on her a few times but she seems to want to be alone.”
Seems to? Timber leaned her head against the back of the couch. She didn’t want to look into any of their faces. She’d seen that Hound earlier, Ace. If Brandt had let him, he’d have packed her off to Charles without even the slightest twinge of remorse. A wolf-shifter in exchange for a Hound? No contest.
“Thanks.” The front door creaked open and Timber watched Brandt step inside. Somehow, despite everything, he still looked incredible. His face was worn, tired, dark stubble sandpapering his jaw, but just his presence as he walked into her house made her heart pick up speed. He was tall and lean, built more like a runner than a weight lifter. The wild curl to his hair gave him a kind of rugged appeal, especially in his rumpled jeans and T-shirt. Brandt’s eyes lifted to meet hers.
His gaze held hers, imploring. “How you holding up?”
She had no idea how she was supposed to feel. Was it wrong to simply be numb? Timber tried to offer him a smile, but she couldn’t do it. She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. It was all the answer she could give him.
His attention drifted to the clock, but she didn’t have to look to know it was almost two in the morning. She’d been staring back and forth between the window and the clock since this whole fiasco began.
“You tried to get any sleep?”
“No.”
Brandt crossed the room, his long strides eating up the distance between them until he was kneeling in front of her, one hand on hers. She could see the small hole in his sweatpants over her knee, where she’d been picking at the stray threads. His fingertips brushed the bare skin there when he rested his hand on hers. “It wasn’t your fault,” he whispered.
“I know. I just...don’t even know what to feel anymore. I just want this to be over.” She gritted her teeth hard enough that her jaw ached. No. She knew exactly how she felt. Angry. Scared. And she was sick and tired of being scared. “She didn’t deserve to die. None of them has deserved to die.”
“You don’t deserve this, either. The guilt, the regret, the pain.”
“Charles deserves to die,” she whispered. Brandt didn’t argue, and Timber found herself clinging to that. Somehow, he didn’t seem to want to blame her. “Your pack—”
“Does not blame you.”
That was probably the hardest part to believe. She was an easy scapegoat, and she understood that kind of thinking. “Then who do they blame?”
Brandt rubbed his thumb over her knuckles, the soft stroking reassuring, grounding her. “The same person I do. Wolfe.”
A knock at the door sounded and a blonde head peeked in. The freckle-faced woman’s attention landed on Brandt. “Tate’s got a room. You good to go?”
Timber felt her heart twist, the slamming pulse picking up tempo, as Brandt shook his head and the Hound disappeared back outside. “Go where?”
“You can’t stay here.”
Timber backed away, shaking her head. No. She wasn’t going anywhere, not after one of their own had been murdered. No.
“Wolfe has the upper hand here. He knows how to contact you, how to get to you. He knows the layout of the place and has the luxury of watching us, figuring out our weaknesses. You are not safe here.”
A laugh caught in her throat, ripe with hysteria; it ached, burning to be let out. She wasn’t safe anywhere. And she sure as hell wasn’t getting in a Shifter Town Enforcement car. “No.”
“I’m asking you to trust me. Have I let you down yet?”
Timber made a strangled sound. No, he hadn’t. Somehow, he seemed to keep to everything he said, every time. Still, the idea of walking out of her house and getting in a Shifter Town Enforcement vehicle, letting them tote her off to wherever, set her teeth on edge. “There’s no guarantee anywhere else will be safer.”
She knew she was being stupid. Looking at Brandt in front of her, she didn’t believe he’d give her to Charles, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave, either. She wanted to trust him, implicitly, blindly, but the rest of his pack? She blew out a long, slow breath. Here, although he’d surrounded her with his pack, she still had the illusion of control.
Leaving stripped her of that. She could walk right into a trap without either one of them knowing what hit them.
“I want somewhere I know. I don’t want to be in some motel room surrounded by people I don’t know.”
“Do you have friends, family you could go to?”
“No.” How pathetic did it sound that the man in front of her, the one she barely knew, was th
e closest thing she had to a friend? She swallowed.
Brandt speared his fingers through his hair as he looked up at her. That one motion highlighted his exhaustion. It showed the weary creases at the corner of his eyes, the dark shadows on his face. “Is it the thought of Shifter Town Enforcement that makes you the most nervous about leaving? That even with me, someone else in my pack could pull a stunt that leaves you open in vulnerable?”
Timber couldn’t answer that. She tried to look away, but the moment she dragged her gaze from his she saw him nod, understanding and sympathy flashing across his face. She hated the pity, hated feeling this weak and helpless.
“You don’t get it,” she said, her voice whisper-soft. “Here? You leave for work and I’m still home. You can leave guards and surround my house, but I have the upper hand. You might think you only had one in your pack who might toss me to Charles, but after another body? Another one of your Hounds dead? You just don’t know. But I can guarantee you that Charles is going to go after them until you give up.”
“No, you don’t get it.” Brandt caught her chin and forced her to look at him. “Ace has had issues with shifters since day one. I agreed to give him a shot, he failed. He can leave. The rest of my pack? Not a single one blames you. They know you didn’t hold the knife. They know handing you to him won’t stop anything. What Charles did was a challenge to them as much as it was to you. He made it personal, and they want back at the bastard who killed one of their own. Giving you to him? That’s letting Wolfe win.”
“That’s not just letting him win,” a masculine voice said from just inside her door and Timber jumped. Only Brandt’s hand on her jaw kept her from bolting. She recognized the man door as one of Brandt’s Hounds. She’d seen him several times; he seemed to be one Brandt trusted the most. “Giving you to him means he gets to kill anyone he wants, Hounds, shifters, humans, without so much as a slap on his wrist. If anything, it’d paint a large neon sign to him that all he has to do is kill one of us and we’ll toss him a bone. That’s not a message we want to send.”
The corner of Brandt’s mouth edged up in a smile.
“Tate Stanton,” the man said as he walked closer, his hand extended. Brandt rose to his feet, his hand falling away so she could greet the Hound approaching her. His hand closed around hers, his grip firm and warm. “But I have an idea, if the thought of a motel room surrounded by Hounds freaks you out.”
She glanced between him and Brandt and said, “I’m listening.”
But instead of answering her, Tate looked to Brandt. “Bannock might be willing to take her in.”
Bannock. The name sounded familiar. Her brow creased before the Delphi alpha’s name registered. Nathan Bannock. Another wolf alpha. Hell, the last thing he’d want was trouble for his pack.
“I could give him a call,” Brandt said, his glance meeting hers.
She started to shake her head when Tate’s voice drew her attention back to him. “You can’t get safer than in the middle of Delphi territory.” His lips hitched up in a smile. “Or so I’ve been told. And, probably more important, Bannock has a bone to pick with the man stalking you. It’s personal for him, too.”
“One of Nathan’s wolves was attacked while leaving work before the first victim in this area died. She recognized Wolfe’s picture. Every enforcer in Nathan’s pack knows Wolfe’s scent.” Brandt had his phone in his hand, but she knew he was waiting for her to agree before he made the call. All she had to do was say yes.
Timber glanced at her couch. She’d known Brandt couldn’t stay here with her forever. Had known Charles would outlast him. They were giving her another place to go to draw out the protection, but how long before the Delphi alpha set her on her own? And as stupid as it sounded, it was more than that.
She didn’t want to give up the time she’d had here with Brandt. Her tongue darted nervously out over her lips. She was terrified of ending up back with Charles, but ever since he’d come after her this time, her life had finally opened up. Fitting, considering he’d shut every door and chance at happiness when he took her the first time.
Slowly, she nodded. “Worth a try.”
“I’ll make the call.” Brandt glanced at the clock and she saw him wince. “Though I doubt he’ll be happy about what time it is.”
He turned away and keyed in a number. Timber watched as he paced in the direction of her kitchen, leaving Tate still standing next her. He leaned against the couch. “Brandt doesn’t walk away from anything. Even moving you to Delphi won’t make him give up.”
No, she didn’t think it would. He’d keep going after Charles, she was sure of it. He just wouldn’t be here with her anymore and, as much as she tried to tell herself it didn’t matter, that in the end he’d have had to walk away anyway, it still hurt.
Chapter Fourteen
Timber recognized the muscular man on the front steps when Brandt came to a stop in front of the two-story brick house. Nathan Bannock wasn’t someone you forgot. In another life, maybe he’d have seemed handsome and less...scary. But something about him had intimidated her from day one. His eyes had the cold, hard stare of a killer. And where Brandt was leaner, slimmer, Nathan had a bulk to him that suggested he spent quite a bit of his time in the gym.
He was leaning back against the house, his arms crossed. Everything about the Delphi alpha looked terrifying, especially cloaked in darkness. The dim light of the porch flickered in and out. She clutched the arm rest on the passenger seat, not daring to move just yet. Brandt glanced at her. “You okay?”
“Yeah. He just always looks so damn mean.”
Brandt laughed at that, his smile flashing in the dim light of the car. “He can be mean, too. It’s what keeps his pack safe.”
She understood that, but couldn’t he be all warm and smiley right now? Instead of glowering down the street. She was grateful for Brandt’s warmth next to her. He didn’t rush her out of the car. Brandt let her get her bearings and waited until she reached for her door before he followed her out. Her legs felt weak as she got her bags and followed Brandt up the walk. The Delphi alpha just stood there, watching. His eyes seemed extra bright in the darkness, a wolf gold that seemed to cut through the night. He was watching the street, she realized. It was only when they’d stepped up on the front porch with him that the other wolf looked down at her.
The planes of his face seemed to warm a bit, his eyes even hinting at sympathy. “Timber Kearney. It’s nice to meet you.”
He held out a beefy hand. Her palms were slick with sweat, but she dropped one of her bags, rubbed her hand on her jeans and then reached to take his. “You too, Mr. Bannock.”
His head jerked slightly in disagreement. “Just Nathan.”
Brandt shook Nathan’s hand next. “Thanks again for taking her in.”
Nathan flashed Brandt a feral smile. It looked dark, haunting around the edges. “No problem. The bastard better hope he doesn’t try for her. I’d love to have a go at him.” His gaze landed back on her, and Timber fought not to squirm. “Let’s get you inside. I didn’t want to wake anyone else in my pack tonight, so you can stay here with me. Tomorrow we’ll get you moved in with Shay.”
He was moving her in with another woman?
As if reading her skepticism, Nathan’s grin stretched wider. “Addison Shay. She’s one of my enforcers, freaking vicious, too. I’d poke a rabid bear before I’d take her on. She’ll have your back. But I know she just worked a 24-hour shift playing bodyguard for some rich chick. She needs to sleep tonight.”
Nathan pushed open his front door and let them inside. Timber allowed her gaze to wander over the mismatched furniture, the large-screen television. The place had bachelor pad written all over it. But it also looked cozy. Comforting. The tense knot between her shoulders eased.
“There’s a guest bedroom upstairs. I already pulled out some fresh sheets.”
“I’ll be parking a pair of Hounds on your street, just in case. I don’t think he saw us move her, but I’m not willi
ng to take the chance.”
Timber turned to the men talking behind her. She could see the sympathy in Nathan’s eyes, the rough acknowledgement that Brandt had lost one of his pack. She couldn’t help but wonder just how much the Delphi alpha knew, but there was an easiness between the two men that told her they’d worked together before.
Brandt took a step in her direction, and Timber felt her heart pick up. “You’ll be safe here.”
“I know.” She glanced at Nathan, but the wolf had moved away, giving them privacy.
“I’ll check in on you. We are going to catch him. Wolfe will make a mistake sooner or later.”
Timber stared up at him. This night could have gone so differently. When she’d gone down those stairs and seen him, for the first time in a long time she’d thought of sex. Hell, not just sex, but the opportunity to have more in her life. Once again, Charles had ruined that.
But this time, she knew even if Charles just moved on and let her go, she couldn’t go back to the woman she’d been before. She needed more in her life than four walls in a house. She still wanted to help women, wanted to help those like her, but she needed more. She needed people in her life.
Timber reached up and touched Brandt’s face, his stubble rough under her fingertips. She felt his mouth curve into a tender smile as he leaned down to press his lips against her forehead. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she whispered and tilted her face up. His lips found hers. It was a gentle kiss, just a soft touch of his lips on hers, a promise that he wasn’t walking away.
Then he stepped back. Timber watched while he and Nathan shook hands and the wolf-shifter showed him to the door. She angled her head so she could look out the window and watch him walk to the STE vehicle parked on the street.
Nathan stepped up beside her, but she didn’t look at the Delphi alpha until Brandt’s black car had disappeared around the corner, lost in the darkness. She looked up at the alpha then, and those hard eyes of his seemed to read every thought in her head, but he didn’t pry. Instead, he tilted his head at the stairs. “Ready to crash?”