by Paige Tyler
Mac swallowed hard. She wasn’t sure how badly Cooper and Becker had been hit, but Hardy’s thugs must have put a couple hundred rounds into the SUV. There was no way Brooks had made it through unscathed. Gage had told her werewolves weren’t immortal. Could Hardy’s men have killed them? Tears stung her eyes. She didn’t even want to think about that.
“What are you going to do to me?” Mac asked.
Patterson ignored her as he said something into a handheld radio. Since he kept looking in the side mirror, he must have been talking to someone in a car behind them. She was right. A moment later, another sedan passed them and took the lead.
Patterson gave her a nasty smile. “Honestly, I don’t know what Mr. Hardy has in store for you. But considering that your boyfriend is responsible for the destruction of his entire business empire, killed his son, then had the balls to walk in and threaten him in his own home, I assume it’s going to be something very painful. I really wouldn’t want to be you when the boss gets his hands on you.”
Mac didn’t have a clue what the man meant about Gage threatening Hardy in his own home. But if Hardy had gone to the effort of grabbing her alive, it meant he had something specific in mind for her. If he’d wanted her dead, his men would have gunned her down like Cooper, Becker, and Brooks.
They must have been the ones who’d beat up Zak and used him as bait to draw her out of the compound. She had no idea how Hardy could have known about her relationship with Zak and that it was one thing that would pull her out of hiding, but somehow he had.
Mac saw a blur of movement out of the corner of her eye. Up ahead in the darkness, something big slammed into the side of the car in front of them, sending it spinning out of control. The driver of the car Mac was in swerved, barely avoiding it, then slowed to a stop.
“Shit,” muttered the guy beside her. “That was a freaking man who hit them.”
“No way,” Patterson said, turning to look over his shoulder at the other car that was now thirty feet behind them.
“I know what I saw,” the other man insisted. “It was a man. He hit them like he was tackling the damn car.”
Mac had seen it, too, but she wasn’t going to clarify that the man they’d seen wasn’t really a man at all. She didn’t know how it was possible, but Brooks had survived the ambush and chased down two speeding cars to rescue her. She hadn’t realized a werewolf could do that. Then again, she didn’t really know what a werewolf was capable of.
Gunshots echoed in the air. Mac turned to see orange flashes of light in the dark.
Patterson swore. “Get us out of here.”
“What about the others?” the man driving asked.
“Screw them if they can’t take care of themselves.”
Over her shoulder, Mac saw a dark shape hurtling toward them. Even though she knew it was Brooks, she still screamed when he slammed into the passenger door hard enough to shatter the glass and dent the door panel. She screamed again when he yanked off the door and dragged out the man beside her.
She had enough sense to get out while she could. Or would have if the man on her right hadn’t grabbed her at the same time the driver floored the gas and sped away. As they did, she caught sight of movement behind them.
“What the hell was that?” the driver asked.
Patterson was looking around everywhere at once. “How the fuck should I know? Just get us the hell out of here.”
Mac jerked around, trying to get another glimpse of the werewolf chasing them, but it was too dark. It wasn’t big enough to be Brooks, so it had to be either Cooper or Becker.
She braced herself, expecting whoever it was to slam into the car again, but nothing happened and the blurred shape fell back. She kept looking around, but twenty minutes later, they drove through a small gate somewhere on the backside of the airport and stopped in front of a series of hangars. The man beside her dragged her out of the backseat.
“Keep an eye out for Mr. Hardy,” Patterson ordered the man, grabbing Mac’s arm and pulling her toward a metal building. “We’ll be leaving as soon as he takes care of her.”
Mac fought Patterson, trying to jerk out of his grasp, but it was no good. Even with the soft cast on his arm, Patterson easily overpowered her and dragged her toward the door that another man was holding open for them.
“Stay out on the gate, and make sure no one followed us.”
Before Patterson shoved her through the door, she got a chance to see the man alternating looks between the ripped-up car and the darkness beyond the gate. He didn’t seem like he wanted to be out there, either.
Patterson dragged her across the hangar and around the big, sleek jet in the middle of it until they reached a door on the far side. Without a word, he opened the door and shoved her inside, slamming it behind her.
The room was almost completely dark except for an orange glow leaking through the row of small windows near the top of the outer wall. She looked around, but couldn’t see much more than some shelves and a lot of boxes.
Mac ran her hand along the door for the knob, but it was locked. She jerked on it a few times, but it didn’t give. She felt her way around the room, looking for another way out, but there weren’t any other doors, and the only windows were nearly fifteen feet off the floor. There was no way she could get up there.
She didn’t like thinking about what Walter Hardy had in mind for her. He was a vicious man with nothing left to lose. As Patterson had said, Hardy blamed Gage for everything that had happened to him, from the death of his son to the cops being on his trail. The powerful man had tried to take his anger out on the commander of the SWAT team, and failed. Mac could only assume that he’d decided to go after an easier target—her. Somehow Hardy knew she and Gage were together. He figured that if he couldn’t hurt Gage directly, he’d do the next best thing and hurt someone who was important to him.
That thought terrified her so much it made her tremble, but one thing helped her keep it together. Gage and his pack would come for her—no matter how many of Hardy’s men stood in their way.
* * *
Gage had been pissed as hell to find out Hardy wasn’t home. He’d really wanted to serve the man the warrants personally. But the search of the Southlake residence had still gone well. Not only had they connected Hardy to the men who’d come after him and Mackenzie, but they’d also gotten enough to put the guy away for years on racketeering charges, tax evasion, money laundering, illegal drugs—just to name a few. Gage couldn’t believe Hardy had been so sloppy as to keep records of all his dealings. It was like he didn’t think the cops would dare come after him.
He was still worried no one had seen Hardy yet, though. Gage was just about to go check to see if the deputy chief had heard anything when his cell phone rang.
“Dixon.”
“Hardy’s men grabbed Mac,” Brooks said simply.
Gage’s heart stopped. “What? When?”
“About ten minutes ago. The bastards beat up Zak to lure Mac to the hospital. We chased them for a couple miles, but they got away.”
Shit.
“I’m on my way. Where are you?”
After Brooks gave him the location, Gage shoved his phone in his pocket, then shouted for Delaney and Lowry to get in the vehicle. He saw Mason glance his way. Gage pretended not to see him. They didn’t need SWAT on the scene now anyway.
Brooks had obviously alerted the whole team, because there were several SWAT SUVs parked along the side of the road where the senior corporal had said to meet him.
The road had been blocked off around what looked like a traffic accident. A dark sedan was lying in the ditch with the driver’s side door smashed in and the windows missing. Bullet holes riddled the car, and there were four dead bodies lying in the grass, automatic weapons alongside them. Hundreds of shell casings were scattered around the area.
Gage’s whole pack was c
lustered around the first SUV in the line. Well, not all of them. Becker and Xander were missing. Cooper was sitting on the hood of the car with his shirt off, a stoic look on his face while Trevino dug a bullet out of his shoulder. The team medic dropped it to the asphalt to join the others he’d already taken out. Shit, there were a lot of bloody bullets lying there.
Brooks turned. There was a dark purple and black bruise running down the big man’s neck and into his collar that probably stretched across his shoulder and chest. It looked like he’d been hit by a freaking car.
“Any idea where they took Mackenzie?” Gage asked.
“We don’t know for sure. All we know is that she was taken by Roscoe Patterson.”
Brooks briefly outlined the call Mac had gotten from the hospital, the ambush they’d walked right into, and the subsequent chase.
“You rammed a car off the road?” Gage asked.
Werewolves were strong, and Brooks was stronger than most. But tackling a car? That was extreme.
“Yeah, I thought it was the car Mac was in.” His jaw tightened. “It wasn’t until I started yanking people out that I realized I’d hit the wrong one.”
“That’s when I ripped the door off the other car, but one of Hardy’s thugs got in the way,” Cooper said. “They sped off before I could pull Mac out. I tried to keep up with them, but I couldn’t. Sorry, boss.”
Gage appreciated the effort they’d gone to get her back. He knew there was nothing more they could have done. “And no one here has any idea where the car was heading?”
“No one who’s alive,” Cooper said. “We’re hoping Becker gets lucky.”
Gage frowned. “Where is Becker?”
“Trying to get in to talk to Zak,” Brooks answered. “According to the nurse at the hospital, a couple of tourists brought Zak in. We assume those tourists were actually some of Hardy’s men, and that Zak might have overheard something—either while they were beating the hell out of him, or while they were taking him to the hospital to be bait.”
Gage wasn’t sure what they could expect out of Zak. The guy didn’t exactly seem like the kind of man who could pay attention to details while in the middle of an ass whooping. “And Xander?”
“He’s there to make sure the doctors don’t try to drag Becker in for surgery,” Cooper supplied. “He got hit a few times, too. Not as many times as I was, but I think that’s because he was using me as a shield.”
There wasn’t much they could do until Xander and Becker got some information, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t search the car and the men who had been in it. Maybe they’d get lucky.
Gage was digging through some suitcases in the trunk of the sedan when three police cruisers and an unmarked car pulled up beside them.
He spotted Deputy Chief Mason’s salt-and-pepper hair in the front seat. Mike came over to stand next to Gage as Mason got out of the car. Shit, this was all he needed.
Mason’s jaw was tight as he took in the bodies on the ground, the automatic weapons, and the bullet holes in the car. His eyes narrowed when he saw Cooper sitting on the hood of the SUV with blood covering half his chest and a SWAT medic leaning over him with a pair of forceps.
“What the hell is going on here?” he demanded, his gaze snapping to Gage and Mike. “First, I find out there was a shootout in front of Mercy General involving three of my SWAT officers. Then I learn you’ve ordered your entire team here. Have you lost your mind, Sergeant?”
Mason walked over and looked down at the first body he came to—a body that didn’t have any obvious bullet wounds but had clearly been killed in an extremely brutal fashion. He made a face, then turned to Gage again.
“As if that isn’t enough, I got a call on the way here that one of Hardy’s enforcers is dead in a ditch about a mile up the road. The patrolman said it looked like someone threw the man out of a moving vehicle. What’s left of him, anyway. They still haven’t found his arm.” The deputy chief strode over to Gage. “Maybe you can explain it to me.”
Gage wasn’t going to pull any punches with his superior. He didn’t have the time, and neither did Mackenzie.
“Hardy’s men abducted Mackenzie Stone about forty minutes ago and have taken her who the hell knows where. My guess is that they’re delivering her to Hardy as we sit here on our thumbs.”
Mason looked at him sharply. “The reporter? What would Hardy want with her?”
“Payback,” Gage said simply. “I took away someone who was important to him, so he wants to take away someone who’s important to me.”
Mason’s brows rose. “You and Stone?” He swore under his breath. “Fuck, you should have told me. You don’t have a clue where she was taken?”
Gage shook his head. “Not yet, but I hope to soon.”
Mason regarded him thoughtfully. “What do you plan to do once you figure out where Hardy took her?”
Gage didn’t hesitate. “I’m going to get her back.”
“By yourself?” his boss asked drily. “Without telling anyone else in the department?”
Gage didn’t answer. He didn’t give a shit about proper police procedure in a case like this. There was nothing that’d keep him from going after Mackenzie.
Mason sighed. “I’ll get a BOLO out on Ms. Stone. Maybe we’ll get lucky and someone saw where they took her. Then I’ll get a team out here to take care of this mess.”
The deputy chief walked away, leaving Gage to wonder if the man was really going to look the other way on something like this. Then his boss stopped and turned back to glare at him. “And get Cooper to the hospital before he bleeds to death.”
Gage nodded as the deputy chief reached in the car for the radio. A few minutes later, Xander called.
“Tell me you talked to Zak,” Gage said as he put the phone on speaker.
“We did,” Xander replied. “Hardy’s men really beat the shit out of him. Probably figured he’d die from it, but he’s tougher than he looks. The doctors didn’t think he’d even come to for a couple of days, but he was already awake and shouting to talk to someone from the SWAT team when we walked in.”
“Does he know where Hardy’s men took Mackenzie?”
“Maybe. After kicking in his door and doing a number on him, they tossed him in the trunk of their car for the drive to the hospital. Through the backseat, he heard them talking about a private hangar where Hardy keeps a jet. Zak thinks that’s where they’d take Mac—so Hardy can kill her before he leaves the country.”
That last part made Gage flinch, but he forced the image aside. He had to stay focused on the fact that he was going to get Mackenzie back safely. Zak’s information wasn’t as concrete and definitive as he would have preferred, but it was the best intel he was going to get at this point.
“Okay. I’m heading to the airport,” he said. “Is Becker in good enough shape to do that computer thing he does and figure out where Hardy keeps his plane? There has to be some record somewhere that’ll give us a clue where that hangar is.”
“Don’t worry, Sarg.” Becker’s voice came on the line. “I’m already on it. If it’s a private hangar, it’ll be on the north side of the airport. Riggs and I will meet you outside the airport on the expressway. I’ll have something specific before you get there.”
Gage hadn’t been asking them to join him, but he appreciated it anyway.
“Gage.” Xander’s voice came back on. “You know Hardy is bound to have a lot of his men around the place. Who else is going in with us?”
Gage didn’t answer. He turned to look around the blocked section of highway and was surprised to see that his pack had stopped digging for clues and come to stand in front of him, their faces set and determined. His gaze lingered on Brooks and Cooper, still torn and bloody from their last encounter with Hardy’s men. Their faces were no less determined than the others.
He couldn’t ask any of
them to do this with him. Hardy was going to have an army of thugs around him, and whether Mason looked the other way or not, this operation wasn’t likely to go down well with Internal Affairs and the politicians down at police headquarters. They were going to figure out that Gage had broken every rule in the book because his girlfriend was involved. He didn’t care what they did to him, but if any of his men went in there with him, they’d be risking their futures in the department as well. He couldn’t ask them to do that.
But as he looked at each of their faces, he realized he didn’t have to ask them.
“We’re all going,” he told Xander.
Chapter 13
Maybe she’d heard wrong. Pushing the heavy shelving unit under the window had made a lot of noise. But no. She’d heard just fine. A car had pulled into the hangar. That squeal of tires had to be Hardy. She was out of time.
Heart racing, Mac glanced over at the door to make sure the pieces of the ruler she’d broken and wedged underneath it were in place. They wouldn’t keep Hardy and his men out, but they would slow them down long enough for her to escape. She hoped.
Of course, she would have been out of here fifteen minutes ago if the shelf hadn’t been so damn heavy to move. She was probably taking her life in her hands climbing up on the precariously balanced boxes she’d put on the top shelf so she could reach the window, but she didn’t have a choice. She couldn’t wait around for Gage and his pack to show up and save her. Oh, she knew they’d come—she was just worried she’d be dead by the time they got here. She hated to think about it, but there was a real possibility that Brooks, Cooper, and Becker had succumbed to their injuries after trying to rescue her. Gage might not even know what happened to her.
Mac swallowed hard at that painful thought and reached for another box just as footsteps sounded outside the door. She froze, holding her breath. Go away, she prayed silently. Just give me one more minute.