by Anya Nowlan
With a frustrated growl, Troy released Culliver. The man slumped on the steps of the porch, body heaving up and down, coat matted with red. But it wasn’t going to keep him down for long.
Troy turned and ran back into the house, eyes wildly searching for Hailey. She was pressed against the corner farthest from the door, holding a shotgun. Tears were streaming down her face. As soon as Troy turned his gaze to Morrison, he knew why.
Morrison’s coat was almost entirely covered in blood. The two tigers were snapping at him from both sides as the man drew in labored breaths, swiping at his enemies in an attempt to keep them at bay.
Morrison was in bad shape, and it was all Troy’s fault. He should never have dragged the man into this and he shouldn’t have left Hailey’s side.
He jumped into the mix, claws raking down the back of the tiger closest to him. The animal yelped and turned for a counterattack. The movement left his throat vulnerable and Troy dug his fangs into it, tearing and dragging him away from the fight.
From the corner of his eye, Troy could see Morrison lunge toward his opponent with a vicious snarl, painting the floor with blood as his paw came down on the tiger’s muzzle. The shifter backed away from Morrison, but only managed to get himself cornered.
With nowhere to run and little room to defend himself, the tiger was easy prey for the grizzled old lion, who didn’t waste time making a meal out of his enemy’s jugular.
With both of the tigers down for the count, Troy threw a quick glance Hailey’s way to make sure she was alright. She was still gripping the shotgun tightly and her eyes were rimmed red, but she looked unharmed. Tail twitching, he rushed back outside, itching to get his teeth back into Culliver.
But a red stain on the porch was all that was left of the bastard. With Troy distracted, Culliver had taken the opportunity to run away from a fight he had clearly been losing. Like a true coward.
Drops of blood led from the cabin to where the cars had been parked, drawing Troy’s attention to the fact that one of the vehicles was missing.
Goddamnit!
He was furious that Culliver had gotten away, but leaving him unattended was the only possible call he could have made. Hailey yelled for help, there was no way he could have ignored that.
Pulling on the reins of his lion, his body started to morph back into human form. The process was usually painless, but the gashes and bruises he had sustained during his fight with Culliver made the transformation uncomfortable to say the least, as his injured skin stretched and formed into its new shape.
I’m going to make him pay for this. All of it.
Back on two feet and with a slight limp, he made his way inside the cabin, silently vowing that the next time his and Culliver’s paths crossed, the fight would only be finished when one of them was dead.
Morrison had already shifted back, and he wasn’t looking too good. Hailey crouched over him, eyes wide and shiny with tears.
His mentor was lying on the floor amongst the rubble that used to be his furniture, looking like every breath he took caused him pain. He groaned weakly as he pushed himself up onto his elbows, his clothes torn and bloody and his mouth smeared red.
“He needs help,” Hailey said, her voice wavering. “We need to get him to a hospital.”
Troy winced with each step. He wasn’t exactly in the best shape either, feeling several trickles of blood running down his body, but he was young. It didn’t matter so much to him. With his mate close, he’d be fine, if a bit worse for wear.
Morrison, though?
“Don’t you die on me now, old man,” Troy murmured under his breath.
Morrison winced as he dragged himself towards his torn-up couch, leaning against it with a sigh.
“Don’t worry about me, I’m too stubborn to die. No hospitals, just hand me my phone. I still have friends.”
Troy looked around the room, spotting a small black rectangle on the floor under the kitchen table. He quickly retrieved it and handed it over to Morrison after making sure it still worked.
Men like them, they rarely ended up at a hospital. There would be too many uncomfortable questions to answer. It was better to get things done another way, through contacts who were used to dealing with horrific injuries and asked no questions on top of it.
Hailey stood and looked at them both like they were insane.
“Unless your friends are doctors, I don’t see how calling them is going to help.”
Troy pulled her aside, leaving Morrison to thumb through his contacts. The man looked like shit, but Troy knew he had been through a lot worse in his day. Morrison was a tough son of a bitch, he’d pull through.
He had to.
“Shifters work a little differently than humans,” Troy said sternly, looking at Hailey. “We can take a lot more punishment, and we heal much faster, especially when we’re around our own kind. Trust me, moving him right now would do a lot more harm than good. He’s going to be fine, he just needs some time.”
Raising her brows, Hailey gave him a quick onceover before looking at Morrison, speaking quietly into his blood-smeared phone.
She didn’t look convinced.
“I hope you’re right.”
You and me both.
Twenty-Three
Hailey
Waiting for whoever it was that Morrison had called to arrive, Hailey and Troy tended to the man’s injuries the best they could with what they had available. To her surprise, most of his wounds were already starting to clot over and some of the color was returning to his face. A human with the same kinds of injuries… Hailey didn’t even want to picture the outcome.
The sound of tires on gravel made Hailey jerk her head towards the door.
It’s probably Morrison’s friends, she assured herself, even as her hands started to tremble.
She wasn’t ready for another fight, and neither was Morrison. Troy tensed for a second, his eyes narrowing and a rumble starting in his throat.
“It’s alright,” Morrison said. “That’s Striker. I could smell that old pain in the ass anywhere.”
“Who you calling old?” a deep voice boomed from the doorway.
Striker looked like Morrison’s slightly older, surlier brother, with bits of sawdust clinging to his flannel shirt and a scowl on his face. He glared at Troy and Hailey before stepping inside and crouching down next to Morrison, making them clear a path for him.
“Now what kind of shit have you gotten yourself into this time?”
“You really want to know?” Morrison asked back, brow arched, even though it was split right down the middle.
Shrugging, Striker sat down next to him, stretching out his long legs with a sigh.
“Nope.”
Hailey still couldn’t help but worry, even as Morrison smiled at Striker and clapped him on the back, looking stronger by the minute. That shifter healing Troy told her about was apparently pretty powerful.
But she still couldn’t help but feel like Morrison should at least see a doctor. This stuff was pure insanity and the extent of his injuries was no joking matter. Morrison caught the concerned look she threw his way.
“You guys can get out of here, now. You have a lot more to worry about than an old man’s health.”
For his part, Striker looked remarkably untroubled and even Troy’s jaw was unclenching.
“I’ll get him back to my place. He’ll be safe there, as long as he doesn’t touch the remote control.”
Troy gently squeezed her shoulder, speaking softly.
“We should get going, we have no idea what Culliver is up to and this location is no longer safe.”
Hailey nodded, growing numb now that she could finally stop and take a breath. She could still feel the barrel of Culliver’s gun pressed against her back and being surrounded by blood and gore wasn’t exactly helping her relax.
She had seen her share of crime scene photos, but looking at a picture of a dead body was hardly comparable to seeing one in real life. The guys didn’t
even spare a second glance at the death around them. It made her wonder how many horrible things they had seen in their life to make them this jaded.
How many horrible things Troy had seen.
Would she ask him, one day? Did she want to know? She wasn’t sure. But they did have a lot to talk about, regardless.
“I’ll call you later, see how you’re doing” Troy added a little more loudly, throwing Morrison a glance and shaking Hailey from her musings.
Morrison nodded and gave her a quick smile.
“Thank you for everything,” she whispered to him, managing to smile back.
Troy stepped closer to his mentor and bent down as they grabbed onto each other’s elbows, squeezing tightly. He said something to Morrison, but it was too quiet for her to hear. Getting back up, he walked over to wrap an arm around her shoulders and guided her outside, where his truck was waiting.
Hailey didn’t know where they were going and she didn’t care. As long as it was away from all this carnage, and as long as she was by Troy’s side.
The woods were starting to spread thinner when Hailey finally couldn’t keep her tongue behind her teeth any longer. She had questions and they needed answers.
“Does this place we’re going have anything to do with The Firm?” Hailey inquired cautiously, noticing Troy’s hands tense on the wheel.
They had been driving for a while now, and except for asking how she was feeling and if there was anything she needed, Troy had been quiet.
She didn’t want to put him on the spot, but they couldn’t just keep lying to each other either, with Troy hiding what he was really doing in the Claws and Hailey pretending she didn’t know about it. Troy didn’t even miss a step.
“Morrison told you,” he remarked flatly.
“You don’t sound all that surprised.”
“I suspected he couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He always did think he knew what was best for me,” Troy answered with a ghost of a smile.
Maybe he does.
“I think he just wanted me to understand you better. That’s what I want, too. No more hiding things. We need to be honest with each other if we want to survive,” Hailey said as Troy used a sleeve to wipe the blood off his nose.
He let out a long breath before turning to look at her. His eyes somehow seemed even bluer, blazing with something Hailey couldn’t name.
“Okay, so I guess it’s time to come clean. I don’t work for the Crimson Claws, but you already know that. I hate everything they stand for. They give shifters a bad name. That’s why I agreed to take this mission, despite the fact it would put me right in the middle of the hornet’s nest.
“I’ve spent over a year on this, slowly infiltrating the organization. It should have taken longer to get where I am. I was prepared to spend years with these scumbags.”
Hailey listened with rapt attention as Troy laid it all out on the table.
“Don’t be fooled, though, that doesn’t make me a good guy. I’ve done things, for this mission and others before it. I don’t hurt innocents. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a whole lot of blood on my hands. I’ve killed a dozen members of the Crimson Claws on this mission alone.”
He stared at Hailey, his every muscle coiled, eyes moving to catch even her smallest movements as he seemed to brace himself for her reaction. If any other man had admitted to her he basically killed people for a living, she would already be running for the hills.
But Troy wasn’t any other guy. Even when she had thought he was a ruthless mobster, she couldn’t stay away from him, like she couldn’t quite believe it even though it was laid out right before her.
Hailey could finally make sense of her conflicting feelings. She had sensed all along there was good in Troy, that he wasn’t just some goon ready to step on people for a few extra bucks. He had a sense of morals, no matter how skewed towards the extreme they were.
He was no Culliver.
So he kills. Bad people. No one’s perfect.
Hailey couldn’t even believe her own thoughts, the straight arrow she had always been, but there was no denying that’s how she felt.
Was being part of The Firm and taking out mobsters really that different than being a SEAL and taking down terrorists? She didn’t have a problem with his past in the Navy, so taking issue with his work with The Firm seemed like a very hypocritical thing to do.
Now I know why they say love makes you a little crazy.
She wasn’t a fool. The Firm was a for-profit organization and not everything they did could be considered anywhere near honorable. But they were a fair bit better than the likes of The Arctics and Crimson Claws.
With all these thoughts rushing through her head, the response she gave out loud was a bit underwhelming.
“Okay,” she said softly, meeting Troy’s gaze.
“Okay?” Troy asked, brows shooting up.
“I don’t think at this point, anything you say could drive me away,” Hailey answered with a resigned sigh. “We’ve pretty much covered all the possible extremes and I’m still here.”
“Not the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard, but I’ll take it.”
Life and death hanging in the balance, a shifter baby growing inside of me, slowly falling in love with a man as deadly as they come – how did my life become a Lifetime movie?
Yet, if she could turn back time and change the past, she would still go to that club and she would still take Troy home with her. That was pretty much the only thing she was sure about.
Love is worth the pain of uncertainty.
Twenty-Four
Hailey
Troy pulled up to a high-rise apartment building in Millennium Park and turned to face Hailey.
She put on a brave face, even though she was secretly terrified. Her parents seemed to be safe, for now, but the whole Crimson Claws organization was out to get her and Troy. She could only hope Troy’s connection to The Firm would somehow be of help.
The odds were definitely stacked against them.
Troy took her hands in his. His eyes were soft and his tone gentle, which led Hailey to suspect her brave face was maybe not as brave as she had hoped.
“No one will find us here, I promise. The Firm has safehouses set up for just these kinds of occasions. I have no links to this place that anyone could trace.”
Hailey swallowed and nodded, feeling hear heartbeat slow. She trusted Troy, and if he said they were safe here, she believed him. She reached back into the stained backseat and pulled out her duffel bag.
Pulling out a sweatshirt, she wiggled into it, smoothing back her hair in the process. Her bloody appearance was bound to raise some eyebrows, so she covered up as best she could.
Troy, covered in blood, didn’t seem to care half as much.
Troy got out of the truck first. The way his body tensed, Hailey could tell he was using those shifter senses of his to scan the surrounding area for threats. He almost froze in spot for a moment, like those big cats on Discovery documentaries. It was mesmerizing to watch.
Seemingly satisfied with whatever he saw, heard or smelled, Troy made his way over to the passenger side door and opened it for Hailey.
She jumped out and they walked quickly inside the building with Troy’s arm around her. The doorman arched a very judgmental brow at their disheveled appearances, but didn’t comment. Not that she would have cared if he did. How she looked was the least of her problems right now.
At least she could lean on Troy. Lately, the only times she felt safe was when she was tucked under his shoulder or wrapped in his arms.
A short elevator ride later, they arrived on the fifteenth floor and Troy guided her to a door near the back of the hallway. She could hear keys jingle as he shoved a hand into one of his pockets. Hailey remained glued to his side as he unlocked the door, finding it hard to let go of him, as if he’d disappear into thin air if she did.
They stepped inside, Troy quickly locking the door behind them. With a sigh, Hailey plopped down onto the
nearest seat, not at all happy about disentangling herself from him. But the adrenaline keeping her on her feet was dissipating, leaving behind overwhelming tiredness.
Hailey looked around as Troy did a quick tour of the place, checking out every room. She let the duffel fall off her shoulder and on the floor next to an end table, having kept a firm grip on it even when Troy had insisted to carry it for her. Hailey knew he needed his hands free if anything were to happen, despite his chivalry.
There was a small kitchen area near the door, with a stainless steel fridge and marble countertops. The living room had an open plan, connecting to the kitchen and leading to a bedroom in the back. A large flat screen hung in one wall, opposite a grey couch with colorful pillows.
Large windows filled the place with light and a round dining table with matching chairs was set up near the back corner. It looked pretty cozy, as far as hideouts went.
Hailey tilted her head, peeking around the corner of the bedroom. There was a bathroom attached to it, and suddenly, all she could think about was scrubbing herself clean of all the blood she was still wearing, most of it Morrison’s.
It still sent a shiver down her spine, thinking how close he had come to dying, fighting those tigers. If Troy hadn’t come back when he did…
Sighing, she pushed herself out of the armchair she was in and grabbed her bag again, heading for the bathroom.
“I’m going to take a shower.”
Troy appeared next to her suddenly, apparently done with checking the closets for intruders, and pulled her into a tight hug. Hailey melted against him, his warmth thawing the ice in her veins.
Now how did he know I needed a hug?
“We’re going to be okay,” he whispered to her, his hand running up and down her back.
In that moment, Hailey believed him. If anyone could keep that promise, it would be Troy.
They just had to stick together. No more secrets and no more hiding things. The only way they were going to get out of this mess was if they acted as a team.