I tried to smile but only more tears came. “I know.”
“So do you think I’m a bad person?”
“No!” I wiped away more tears. “You’re the most loyal, fiercely devoted man I’ve ever met.”
He cocked his head. “Yet you don’t think I’m bad?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why do you think you are? What you did is what any of us would have done. You protected me. You protected your family. You did what you needed to do.”
“But I almost killed them, and I didn’t care.”
He took a deep breath. “You’re very powerful, it’s true. It’s easier for you to hurt someone than it is for most of us, but you would never hurt someone who wasn’t threatening you. You reacted, you didn’t act. Do you see the difference?”
I wiped my eyes and sniffed. “Well . . . yeah, I guess so.”
“But you’re still worried, aren’t you? You still think that reacting that way makes you a bad person.”
I shrugged. “I can’t help but think that.”
“What could you have done differently for you to not feel that way?”
Grabbing a tissue, I blotted my eyes and wiped my nose. I sat up straighter. “Well, I guess I would have had more control. That I would have controlled myself enough to incapacitate those men without hurting them.”
“So control would have made you feel less guilty?”
I sniffed again. “Yeah, it would have.”
He took both of my hands in his. His warm palms felt so good. “Then next time you’re in a situation, remember how you’re feeling right now. Remember how important it is to you to learn control and not intentionally hurt someone. I still don’t think you did anything wrong, and I’ll never think you’re a bad person no matter how many men you take down, but if it’s important to you that you don’t kill anyone, practice controlling yourself more.”
“You’d really never think I was a bad person?”
“You’d have to kill a whole lot more than a bunch of Marcus’ men for me to ever think that. I know you better than anyone, babe. You’re good. Nothing you can say will make me think otherwise.”
I took a deep breath. Already, I felt the heavy feeling in my chest lightening. “So you don’t feel differently about me?”
He tipped my chin up so my eyes met his. “Never.”
I continued to think about what he said. Control. Deliberate use of my powers. He was right. If I learned how to control my responses in heightened situations, I wouldn’t intentionally hurt someone. But what if it comes down to killing someone to save Flint or my family?
I frowned as that possibility sank in, but I already knew the answer. If it was a matter of life or death, I’d do it. I’ll kill to protect my family. I’d do the same as Flint.
But am I okay with that?
The only sound was the rain on the window as we sat in silence. I felt Flint watching me. His energy was high, still unsure. “Are you feeling better?”
I nodded. “Yeah, but I think I’m like you. If it came down to it, I’d kill someone to protect you.”
“And you know that doesn’t make you a bad person, right? A lot of people would do that. Most people would do that. It’s a natural instinct to protect those we love.” Flint tenderly fingered a lock of hair from my face. He leaned down and kissed me softly on the lips. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, more of a I-just-want-to-know-you’re-still-here-and-that-I-still-love-you-and-that-you’re-really-okay kind of kiss. The kind of kiss one experiences when the future holds so many unknowns.
I threaded a hand through his hair and cupped the back of his neck. A zing of desire raced through me.
Flint’s energy picked up too. I knew he felt my body respond. Pushing me back, he lay down on top of me and kissed me again. His energy picked up more, growing hot and heavy.
When I wrapped a leg around his waist, our energy exploded.
He pressed me deeper into the bed, his weight sinking us into the mattress. The kiss that had started as gentle and questioning, turned into one full of need.
“I could only ever love you,” he whispered. “And I’ll always love you, no matter what.” He kissed down the side of my neck, tenderly, achingly. Desire pooled in my core as his large palm cupped my breast. “I don’t know what I would do if I ever lost you.”
His words hit so close to home that I closed my eyes and let myself get carried away in our lovemaking.
It felt like hours before our breathing calmed and our bodies cooled. We lay in a tangle of sweaty limbs and damp sheets, both of us staring at one another. For a long time, neither of us said anything. Finally, Flint moved. He inched closer and kissed me softly on the neck. His heart beat strongly in his chest.
“I love you,” he whispered. “No matter what happens. No matter what you do.”
I placed a hand on his cheek, his stubble rough under my palm. “I love you too. Always have. Always will.”
WE DRESSED AND left our room in the early afternoon. Luckily, everyone else had also taken their time getting up. The late start to our day was kind of ironic considering we were still in San Francisco and Marcus was still hunting us. However, Father felt we were relatively safe since we’d taken so many precautions checking into the hotel. He also felt that Luke needed the rest.
Everyone was in Di and Jacinda’s suite by the time we arrived. Luke had three trays of food in front of him. He was inhaling everything in sight.
Jet grinned when Flint closed the door behind us. Jet then waggled his eyebrows. It seemed everybody knew what we’d been doing whenever we were the last to show up.
A blush crept up my neck until my cheeks flushed. Yes, sex was a natural thing to do, but it was still embarrassing when everyone knew that’s how you’d spent your morning.
“Nice of you to join us.” Jasper grinned.
I almost retorted that he was one to talk. From Mica’s mussed hair, it was obvious Flint and I hadn’t been the only ones engaged in amorous activities.
I raised an eyebrow at Luke. “How are you feeling?”
The werewolf finished his last plate of food and winked at me. His back was propped against the headboard while his massive frame stretched out in front of him. Jacinda perched at his side, holding a glass with a straw up to him. Jacinda was nothing if not doting when someone was sick. I still remembered how she’d tried to dress me after my entanglement with Aaron. She gave hovering a whole new meaning.
However, Luke didn’t seem to mind the attention. He obediently took the pills in Jacinda’s outstretched hand and then sipped from the straw. When finished, he gave her a crooked grin. She simply fluffed the pillows behind his head and asked how he felt.
“Just fine, beautiful. You can be my nurse anytime.”
She harrumphed but I still caught her smile when she stood to refill his water.
“I’ll need to check your incision,” Di said as everyone sat down.
Luke’s eyebrows rose. “Now?”
“It seems as good a time as any.”
Luke lifted his shirt. We all leaned forward. None of us had seen what his surgery had done.
Di stood over him and frowned as she leaned down. Touching around the incision, she pushed it a few times. From Luke’s nonchalant expression, he didn’t seem to mind.
“Amazing,” she muttered.
Father joined her. Beside Di’s all black attire, Father looked positively colorful. In pressed khaki trousers, a checked collared dress shirt sporting colors of reds, blues and greens, covered with a V-neck sweater in a beautiful hunter green, he looked like a picture straight out of a Ralph Lauren catalog.
Father’s eyes widened. “You’re almost healed.” Both he and Di inspected the incision more closely.
My eyes widened when I saw the red line running across Luke’s abdomen. It looked as if it had been healing for several weeks. It still wasn’t a scar, so it wasn’t completely healed, but it certainly didn’t resemble a fresh incision.
Luke sc
ratched his face. Several days’ worth of stubble lined it. “I’ve always healed fast. Food helps.”
“This fast?” Di asked incredulously.
Luke shrugged. “I guess so.”
Di and Father eyed one another. “Does it have something to do with his lupine DNA?” she asked quietly.
“It could.” Father frowned contemplatively. “Animal saliva is known to contain enzymes that promote healing. Wolves commonly lick wounds to better heal them, but I’m not sure about their blood work. He’s all but bypassed the inflammatory stage of wound healing—”
“Perhaps anti-pathogenic properties or superior perfusion or an advanced cytokine response?” Di countered.
“It’s possible. Perhaps a drug Marcus administered solicits that response.”
Their heads dipped toward one another.
Jet rolled his eyes. “Aren’t we supposed to be figuring out how to use the tracking device to catch one of Marcus’ men?”
Father and Di shrugged sheepishly.
Luke pulled his shirt down and eyed them curiously. “So it won’t take a month for this to heal?”
“Probably not,” Di replied.
I knew Father and Di wanted to continue brainstorming the explanations for Luke’s expedited healing. With regretful looks at one another, they seemed to know this wasn’t the right time.
I smiled. It was hard not to. If O’Brien and Marcus didn’t exist, Father and Di would probably spend all of their days happily locked away in a lab conducting research or doing experiments.
“Right.” Di glanced at Jet. “We’ll get to Marcus in a minute. As for you, Luke. I’d say you’re at a stage we’d expect to see in someone three weeks out from surgery. I think it’s safe to say within the next few days you’ll be as good as healed.”
He grunted. “I kind of figured as much. It’s never taken me long to heal before.”
I eyed Edgar and Susannah. Both still sat away from the group. “Do you also heal this quickly?”
Edgar nodded. “All three of us do.”
I cocked my head. “So one of Marcus’ drugs must cause expedited healing.”
Di’s focus stayed on Luke. “What other injuries have you healed from?”
“A number of nasty gashes, multiple incisions from experiments Marcus did on me, a broken leg when I was running one year—”
“Um, Di?” Jet tapped his watch.
The excited gleam in her eyes cooled. She cleared her throat. “Right, I’d like to hear more about this later, Luke, but Jet’s right. We should be devising a plan right now for how to catch Marcus’ men.” She turned to Father. “All right, would you mind getting the tracking device?”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Since Jacinda and Di had a suite, there was plenty of room for all of us as we moved into the living area. Neutral colored floral wallpaper covered the walls. A gas fireplace, vacant and cold, sat in between two windows. The furniture reminded me of something one would see in an ornate drawing room.
The rain continued outside. All it seemed to do during a San Francisco winter was rain.
Di stood by the fireplace, her tall form dark against the light colored décor. She clasped her hands behind her back and faced us. I vaguely felt as if we were in a board meeting, just like in the movies, although instead of a huge table and swiveling chairs, we sat on chaise lounges and wing backed chairs.
“We need to devise a plan to lure Marcus’ men to a specific area.” She paced in front of the fireplace a few times. “That area needs to be away from people so we won’t draw attention. From there, we’ll need to figure out how to transport those men to a new location for questioning.”
“Hold on.” Jasper held his hand up. “Before we get into that, what about the money? Did Father ever get that figured out?”
Father leaned forward. “It’s not entirely sorted out yet. I have a few people working on it, but for the time being, we’re fine. We should have enough funds to do whatever we need and by the end of the week, all of my money should be secure.”
Flint leaned back on the sofa. “Okay, so I guess we don’t need to discuss Conroy’s funds any further. Not at the moment, anyway.”
Di nodded briskly. “As I was saying, we need to do several things. One, find a location to lure the men. Two, devise a way to get the tracking devise there in a safe and believable manner. Three, formulate a plan to capture the men without them catching us. And four, transport them to an area where we can safely interrogate them.”
Jet snickered. “Well, when you put it like that, it should be a piece of cake.”
Ignoring him, Di continued to pace. From her heavy frown and stiff movements, she seemed more stressed than usual.
Father’s phone rang. He frowned. “I need to take this.” He stepped out of the room which left us to plan on our own.
“Is there a park or somewhere away from the city center that doesn’t see much foot traffic?” I suggested.
Di stopped pacing. “Father has been looking into that. We’ve narrowed it down to two areas, both in Marin County which is relatively close to here. Either Mount Tamalpais State Park or an old military base near Marin Headlands.”
“Okay.” Jasper crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. “So which one?”
Di pulled out her phone and passed it around. On the screen were maps of the area.
“The state park has excellent tree cover,” Di explained. “Redwoods, oaks and low lying shrub encompass most of the park. There are a number of canyons, however, which could make extracting the men harder.”
I studied the maps. “What are the roads like to get in and out of there?”
“Two lane mostly, and the roads are very curvy. We also won’t be able to jump on an interstate right away. It will take longer to evacuate.”
Flint’s brow furrowed. “What about the other place?”
Di’s dark hair brushed her chin when she turned to him. “The military base in the Headlands is close to the coast. It’s mostly low lying ground cover, but there are more roads so it’ll be easier to access them. And easier to get the men out.”
“That seems like the better option then,” Jacinda said.
Mica strummed her fingers. “But what about places to hide? It won’t be easy to hide in ground cover.”
“Are the military bases abandoned?” I asked.
Di nodded.
Jet cocked his head. “Are there enough places around those buildings to hide?”
“Hopefully,” Di replied.
We bounced thoughts and concerns back and forth. It was nice when we did this kind of stuff, everyone was included, not just Di and Flint.
I glanced at Luke, Edgar and Susannah halfway through it. All sat quietly. Luke’s eyes had turned that golden color as he listened intently, and Edgar leaned forward in his seat, seemingly eager to hear what we decided. Susannah, however, sat on a chair pushed back from the group, her thin arms wrapped around her twig-like legs which were drawn to her chest. She stared out the window.
I sighed. I didn’t know if Susannah would ever fully return to the world around her. For the most part, she seemed lost in a land inside her mind that only she could visit.
“So it’s decided that we’ll use the military base?” Di still stood. She hadn’t sat once during our discussion.
Everyone agreed.
Di put the maps away. “We need to scout that place out. Before we remove the tracking device from the transport box.”
Amber perked up. “Speaking of the tracking device, how are we going to get it there without them finding us first?”
“That brings us to the second part of our plan which will be the trickiest.” Di paced the room twice before continuing. “We need them to see the device moving. If we simply remove it at the base, and it suddenly appears in a secluded location, they may sense a trap.”
“They may sense a trap regardless,” Jet said dryly. “It’s been a full day now where the device hasn’t been picked up. Won’t they think th
at’s unusual?”
The door opened and Father slipped back inside.
I smiled at him before shifting in my seat. “Maybe they think Luke’s hiding underground right now. That’s believable, right?”
Flint glanced at Luke. “How much do you know about the device they put in you?”
Luke shrugged his massive shoulders. “I know the device is how they tracked me in the wild. I also know they always made me transform into a wolf before they released me, but it didn’t occur to me until the other day, when those men surrounded the house, that the actual transformation could trigger it.”
He lounged on the cream colored sofa, giving no indication his incision bothered him. I wondered how much it had healed in the last hour.
I cocked my head. “Does the device stop working when you transform back to human?”
“No. Otherwise, they would have released me in the wild, and I could have turned back to a human and escaped. I actually tried that a few times. They could still always find me.”
I paused. “But it’s triggered by you transforming to your wolf form? I don’t get it. That doesn’t make any sense.”
Luke scratched his jaw, the sound audible as he rubbed his large fingers over stubble. “I’m pretty sure once it’s activated the only way to turn it off is by someone manually turning it off.”
“Like with some switch?” Mica asked.
Luke nodded. “It was controlled by a remote, from what I could gather. But they had to be in close proximity to me for it to work.”
“So your device automatically turns on when you transform into a wolf,” I summarized, “but the only way to turn it off is to have their remote somewhat close to you, and to manually turn it off.”
Luke shrugged. “I believe that’s how it works.”
“Which would explain why they couldn’t activate it when we took you from Chicago. They weren’t close enough to turn on your tracking device.” Di placed her hands on her hips. “They were probably biding their time since they knew you would transform sooner or later.”
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