“The only transport he’s gonna get is in the back of a squad car.”
Christ. He was being arrested for something and didn’t even know what it was. He tried to roll over. The least he could do was get a better look at who he was dealing with. Maybe then he’d be able see why the dick sounded like he’d be more than happy to be the driver of said squad car.
“Whoa, man. Don’t move until I get this C-collar on.” A hand stopped him from moving.
“Fuck the collar, Pete. Just get him the hell to his feet.”
The man, who he assumed was Pete, stood. Shiny black shoes filled Eli’s vision. Come to think of it, his neck was starting to feel crimped. Whether it was from being in this position for so long or whatever had landed him face down licking the pavement, he didn’t know. If the collar would keep him out of jail for another hour or two, he’d gladly don it. The hospital would at least give him the chance to figure things out.
“And your Lieutenant would screw your balls to the wall for not sticking to procedure. You want to lose him on a technicality?”
Thank you, Pete. Eli sighed and closed his eyes. They were getting heavier and heavier and now his stomach was starting to churn. Whatever it was that had brought him down, must have been a doozy.
“Besides the fact my name would also go on the report for not doing my job.”
“He’s fucking guilty as sin, Pete.”
Jesus, the guy was a hard-ass. He tried to shift off a rock gouging into his left pec but the small movement left him wanting to puke.
“Maybe he is, that’s your business. Mine is EMT and he’s got a concussion the size of Texas. Unless you want him to die before he gets the chance to have his fair trial, then you better step back.”
Good thing Pete was on his side. For the moment. Eli had the feeling he’d be facing the wrong side of a jail cell in about five minutes if not for him, and from what he’d heard so far, the detective would probably swallow the key.
“Ricky, let’s get this guy rolled and loaded before he goes out again.”
Pete’s shout had Eli’s head swimming. He wasn’t moving, but it sure felt like he was. The ground beneath him swayed like a waterbed.
“You mind the cuffs, Detective?”
“Yeah I mind. We’ve been hunting this asshole for weeks. No fucking way is he gonna have the chance to get loose.”
“Then hold the goddamn cuff in your hand and clip it to the rail, but I’ve got to roll him to get a better assessment. Do it now!”
There was a grunt above Eli, the distinctive pop of a knee cracking as it bent. His hands were roughly jerked back and up sending another tearing rip of pain through him so that he missed the click of his wrists being released. That did it. He puked.
“Son of a bitch.”
“Damn it. Ricky, get his head and neck,” Pete said in a hurried voice.
Two hands bracketed the base of his head just below his ears, and strong fingers outstretched to wrap securely around his neck. He was rolled quickly. Too fast, and Eli threw up again on the way over.
“Get the backboard,” Pete shouted.
“Unbelievable. Do you think you can play this up any more, Graham? Face it, you fucking got caught.”
A hard surface met Eli’s back and then he was right-side up. A C-collar circled his neck before he could open his eyes. The fucking sleazy bastard. Did he think he’d stuck his fingers down his throat and forced himself to puke? And what had he got caught doing? And where did he know that voice from?
Eli reached up to wipe at something wet on his forehead and heard the cocking of a gun.
“Don’t fucking move, Graham.”
His arm was grabbed and laid back down.
“Easy there, man, I’m just going to start an IV.”
A snap coincided with a sharp tug on his upper arm and a pinprick inside his elbow.
His eyelid was lifted again and he was re-subjected to the penetrating light. When his belly revolted another time, he puffed his cheeks out.
“Shit, he’s going to blow again.”
They rolled him back to the side, this time attached to the board. Only dry heaves wracked his battered body this time. “Stop moving me,” he shouted.
Pete leaned over his now prone form, his hair brushing Eli’s chin. “What was that?”
His shout must not have been quite the shout he’d heard in his head. “No moving,” he said again, gritting his teeth against the pain, the nausea, and the whole idea of the bastard detective standing above them like he was about to grind Eli under the toe of his patent leather shoe.
Pete chuckled. “Just a little more, I promise. We’re going to lift you onto the stretcher and load you into the ambulance.”
“What…happened?” Not a car accident, because Detective Dick Boy wouldn’t be here, the smug tone of arrest lacing his every word.
Eli squinted up at Pete as they lifted him. His face was a mask of concern.
“You don’t know?”
Eli swallowed and shook his head once.
“Not fucking likely, Graham. Nice excuse though, one that’s not gonna fly. What, did you hear us coming and had to come up with something quick? Bash yourself over the head, lay yourself out on the ground and pretend to be a victim?”
The detective leaned over him and whispered so only Eli could hear. “There’s not a fucking thing the Prime can do for you now.”
It was then Eli finally recognized where he’d heard the voice before. The cop was Michael Hayward. One of his own pack. There was a slap of metal on metal and the clinking of the cuff locking in place around a bar beneath the stretcher. Eli’s hand was forced in the same direction.
Eli wondered if he was hallucinating the smug smile he saw on Michael’s face as he hovered there. Obviously, “call Caelan” wouldn’t garner any attention. What the fuck was going on? If he couldn’t trust a shifter from his own pack, who could he trust?
“Back off, Detective. You can meet us there.”
The stretcher rolled and bumped into the ambulance. Bright white lights washed over Eli as he was pushed inside and he wondered if anything else would come shooting out of his stomach again. He slammed his eyes closed and willed his stomach to settle. Inside, he caught the metallic smell of blood. So that’s the wet he felt on his forehead.
Jesus, if only he could remember, he thought, and let the calming blackness surround him.
* * *
After complaining for an interminable amount of time about his lack of Mountain Dew, Caelan had finally gotten her to sit and eat some breakfast. If you could call what she was doing to her food eating. The sun hadn’t completely risen yet, but was well on its way. Time to start talking about the nightmare that had sent her running to the toilet earlier.
“How’s the tummy?” He wasn’t so much of a monster he would pass over her obvious discomfort before going on to the necessary evil.
“Fine,” she grunted.
He smiled. She crumbled her toast into a pile of toast dust.
“So…”
“He killed her. Except he was a man this time.”
Caelan inhaled sharply and snagged her fingers to hold in his hand when she took intense interest in her fingernails. This is what he’d been waiting for. What he could have gotten out of her earlier had they not ended up wrestling naked on the floor.
“Are you sure the man and the wolf you saw before were the same shifter?”
“I don’t know,” she shouted, making him jump in his seat. “Their eyes were the same, like yours and your wolf’s are the same, and his hand…” Her words trailed off so he didn’t hear anything past hand, but the way she was squeezing him was all the testimony he needed. She was scared.
“What about his hand?”
“Well, not really his hand, but his wrist. He had on the same watch as you. The same one the driver wore also. And I noticed this morning you have a tattoo beneath yours.”
Caelan’s gaze drifted to the ancient symbol of a wolf he and Eli h
ad gotten tattooed with when they were twenty-one. It was small enough not to stand out, especially beneath the watch, but still visible because of their position. The top of the wrist was an abnormal placement for someone who wasn’t covered in permanent drawings, but surely there were a few. More than just he and Eli, at least. Weren’t there?
“Did that person also have a tattoo?” he asked, hoping she said no.
Tieran shook her head. Caelan closed his eyes. Thank God. It was definitely not Eli she’d seen then.
“I…can’t remember. Something just stood out at me when I saw yours this morning.”
Caelan released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. Not the answer he wanted. If she didn’t see it, was it because the tattoo wasn’t there, or because it was hidden beneath the watch?
He cleared his throat and his mind. “Where were they?” he asked, redirecting Tieran to the vision.
She shook her head again. “I don’t know. A warehouse somewhere. It was empty, old.” Her free hand came up to wipe at the goose bumps breaking out along her arm. “She was tied to a chair in the middle of the room and there was only one light on, right above her.” She swallowed and her eyes glistened with unshed tears.
Caelan wanted to pull her into his lap and wrap his arms around her in comfort, but he couldn’t. Not now when she was entering that trance-like state again. If he’d learned anything in the last couple of days, it was to let her work through the episodes at her own pace.
“He watched her from one corner where she couldn’t see him,” she continued, “like he was waiting for something. Then he went to her and grabbed her hair. He yanked her head back, forcing her to look at him. It was dark and he had a hat on. With the light above him, I couldn’t see his face.” Tieran’s monotone drone raked at his nerves.
The pulse in her wrist jumped in tempo and Caelan damned himself for putting her through this. If it weren’t vital, he’d give her his shoulder to cry on and listen to her fears.
“Then he said, ‘We won’t have this problem when I’m Prime.’”
Caelan slammed to his feet, overturning the chair and inadvertently letting go of her hand and flinging it aside. Tieran screamed beside him, jolted out of the spell she was in and grabbed the table, swaying in her seat as if he’d pushed her.
“What are you doing?” she said, breathing heavy.
He almost laughed at the incredulity in her voice. If what she’d said hadn’t just thrown him for a total loop, he might have. At least now he knew the motivation of their killer.
“Do you even realize what you just said?” Of course not, she’d been back in her vision, probably couldn’t even hear what she said. He thrust his fingers through his hair. Righting the seat, he faced her.
Her face was white, her eyes too wide and tears shimmered along the lower lids.
Her chin trembled and a myriad of emotions crossed her face. “You’re a Prime,” she whispered as if she’d just come to the conclusion.
She had, he reminded himself. Getting angry with her would solve nothing. What he needed to do was drag every bit of information out of her.
Things were beyond his control because as soon as the elders discovered her ability and the information she had, the choice of whether or not to involve her would be taken out of his hands. It already had been, the moment she murmured something about a Prime.
The sick bastard wasn’t playing at murdering mates, he was clearing a path to take out a Prime.
And Tieran was about to stand directly in his path.
“Yes,” he answered, even though she’d only made a statement. “I am Prime, and I don’t know exactly where you go when you recall these visions, but I need to be able to converse with you about them.”
“You’re the only one?”
He sighed. “The only one what?”
“Prime. Are you the only Prime?” she asked getting slightly hysterical. “Is he coming after you?” A tear slipped down her cheek and his heart thudded. Despite the very short amount of time they’d known each other, their bond was already very strong. The baby made it more so.
“No,” he said, wiping the tear off her cheek then cupping the back of her head. “Every pack has its own head alpha and there are about thirty packs in our community. We’re just one of many across the country, my own.”
“But he’s here, in yours, he could be coming after you.” Tieran dug her fingernails into his arm and squeezed closer. “You have to leave,” she begged.
“I will not leave my pack,” he growled, sounding harsher than he meant to. “There’s no way of knowing which pack he’s targeting.” He brought her forehead to his and kissed her nose. “Unless you’ve seen something that can help us catch him?”
His cell phone rang before he could get any further and he grumbled at the intrusion. It might be Eli though with some new information anyway.
“We’ll talk in a minute,” he said, scraping a hand over his face and flipping the phone open as he stormed out of the kitchen.
Tieran’s heart raced. Someone was out to kill him. She knew it. Could feel it in the pit of her stomach. All the visions were suddenly clear to her and with a heaviness that weighed her down, she remembered Eli’s words. “What it really means is that as a Prime’s mate, you are the alpha bitch. The only way I’ll ever get to touch you is for me to fight Caelan to the death and take over the pack.” But he’d also said he wasn’t too intrigued by that prospect. Words to throw her off, or truth?
God, she didn’t know. More confused than ever before about Eli, she buried her head in her hands. She jumped about a foot in the air when Caelan slammed his cell phone down on the table in front of her. Tieran wondered how it didn’t shatter into a million pieces.
“Let’s go,” he snarled.
“Where? What’s wrong?” Her stomach rumbled, reminding her she hadn’t really eaten anything yet. Yesterday it seemed like she’d done nothing but eat. How could she possibly be hungry again? Tieran laid a hand over her belly and sighed. At this rate she’d be as big as a whale in no time.
“That was the police.” A mixture of rage, hurt and confusion clouded his features when he turned to her. “They fucking arrested Eli for the murders.”
Tieran’s knees threatened to give out. Please, God, no. Not now after all the times Caelan had insisted Eli was innocent. She’d been trying hard to believe it herself ever since the car vision. She didn’t want to go back to thinking of him as a cold-blooded killer. Damn.
“Maybe you should go by yourself,” she said. He would need the time to deal with Eli’s betrayal.
“And leave you here, vulnerable? I don’t think so.” He grabbed her wrist and tugged her toward the door.
“You don’t need me there, Caelan. I’ll only be in the way.”
“The hell you will. This would be a perfect opportunity for the killer. It wouldn’t surprise me if he’d set this up just to get at you.”
He was delusional. Her heart ached for him at a time when his world was about to be ripped apart, leaving him without a twin. She loved him. Tieran sucked in a breath with the realization. And she hated Eli for the pain he would cause her mate.
She stopped, ignoring the pain as her shoulder wrenched in its socket. “You need to go alone.” Not that she didn’t want to support him, but she hated police stations. If she ever saw one again it would be too soon.
“Damn it, Tieran. I don’t have time for this. Eli’s rotting in a jail cell, he’s hurt, and I need to get over there before somebody makes him their prison bitch.”
Despite the grave situation, a short laugh escaped her pursed lips. Envisioning Eli as anybody’s bitch was too much. The man was testosterone on wheels, the same as Caelan.
“You think this is funny?” Caelan rounded on her, gripping her elbow tight.
“It is, yes, when you’ve got him rotting in a cell he’s probably only been in for a few short hours, and have him tagged as Butch’s Bitch.” Tieran tilted her head and put her hand on his
cheek. “What happened to all that talk about him not being capable of doing this? I think I was beginning to believe it,” she whispered.
Her gut twisted in sympathy for both of them. After yesterday, she could see they were both protectors by nature. Otherwise, why would Eli have hidden in those trees just to watch over her? Or had he had other reasons for wanting to watch her? There had to be a reason for the police to arrest him.
Caelan jerked again, throwing her off balance and into his chest. “I know what you’re thinking, Tieran, and you’re wrong. I don’t care if they found his fingerprints, hair, blood and semen tied up in a nice little bow on top of the body. He didn’t do it.” He pivoted on his heel and dragged her out of the house, pausing only long enough to slam the front door shut. Which it did the first time, without bouncing back open and mocking them like her door would.
“Caelan, please,” she cried, digging her feet in all the way to his truck.
He threw open the passengers side and bodily hauled her into the seat. Before she could even speak in protest, he had her buckled in.
“Stay.” He stabbed her nose with his forefinger, his eyes promising retribution if she so much as twitched. He closed her in with a thump and jogged around the hood, jumping into the driver’s seat in the blink of an eye. The engine roared to life and the tires squealed with the slamming of his door.
“Not one word, my own, just listen.” Caelan took the corner so fast Tieran was thrown against the window.
He would kill them before they got there. “You won’t do your brother any good dead.”
“You are the most stubborn…” A vein throbbed in his temple and his teeth were clenched tighter than a sprung bear trap.
Fitting considering that’s about what his twin had gotten himself into. She sighed.
“Do you remember telling me what the man said in the warehouse?”
“Do you want me to answer, or is that a rhetorical question?”
“Son of a bitch.”
She didn’t know whether his curse was for her smart-aleck remark or the traffic. He slapped the steering wheel and slammed on his brakes when a slow-moving tractor pulled out in front them. An oncoming semi prevented him from immediately passing the farmer. At least Caelan’s brain was still functioning properly.
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