by Sadie Hart
His fist caught her in the gut and Sawyer doubled over, gasping. The strike was more lion than man. He lashed out again, his fist slammed into her face hard enough that she tasted blood in her mouth.
Years of self-defense training kicked in. After she’d been kidnapped by a deranged serial killer, her father had made damn sure that every one of his kids knew out to fight like a man and not just as a lion. Then the Academy had honed her skills above and beyond her raw talent. Every Hound had to be able to fight without a gun, because sometimes there just wasn’t any other option.
The lioness in her strained to lash out with claws and teeth, but they’d expect moves like that. They wouldn’t expect this.
She rammed her elbow back into the first male’s nose, hard enough that she could hear the cartilage pop under the blow. Spinning, she kicked out, swiping her foot under his and sending him sprawling to the wet grass.
Sawyer spun, darting toward freedom, but his partner caught her by her arm and jerked her back. Her sneakers slid in the wet grass, and she fell face-first onto the ground with his heavy body toppling over hers.
A heavy, clawed paw crashed into her back, drove the breath from her lungs, and ground her face into the muddy grass. A roar filled her lungs and she felt the lioness inside her twist, wild to get loose. She lashed out, claws tearing into the ground, and it was enough to knock the man off of her. She rolled, scrambling onto her ass as she scooted back in the grass, swiping blindly out at shadows.
It was survival, pure and simple.
They took turns diving in at her, lashing out and roaring, leaving Sawyer with no choice but to alternate her attacks between the two, doing her best to stave them off. Where the hell was Rift? She didn’t have a nun’s chance in hell of fighting off two males alone. The only thing that was saving her was the Hound magick coursing through her veins, giving her just enough speed and strength to keep them at bay. Sawyer snarled, feigning a swipe at one male before launching herself full force at the other. Her open palm smacked across his face, but her claws ripped him open from temple to chin. He roared, lunging, only to be knocked back into the grass by a massive feline body.
The snap of bone came sharp into the darkness.
Sawyer lay there gasping as Rift ripped into the other lion, blood splattering in an arc the rain. The man beneath him screamed and then suddenly went silent. Sawyer knew without even looking that he was dead. The other male had shifted and was now circling Rift, his lips curled back to reveal fangs.
Rift threw back his head and roared. The sound echoed through the night air with raw, feral challenge. Surprise had let him win the first fight easily. A man against a lion didn’t a chance.
Lion to lion, though, was a different story.
The other male lunged and Rift met him with extended claws and huge, body-shaking slashes. Sawyer sucked in a breath and let her own beast out.
Her clothing faded under the magick, disappearing with the change. There was no logic or science to what they were, just pure magick. The moment all four paws hit the rain-slick grass Sawyer lunged. Claws spread wide, she caught the attacking male from behind and ripped open his haunches.
Rift battled him head to head, both males lashing out towards the face, but the moment she struck from behind, the rogue whirled on her. She ducked out of range and let Rift slam him into the ground, claws and teeth sinking into the other male’s back.
Her attacker twisted, lashing out wildly, and then, with a sudden wrench of his body he was free and bolting across to freedom. And unlike him, they let him go. This wasn’t their territory to defend, and they had a cub waiting for them in the car.
Sawyer watched their attacker go, her breath puffing out in curls of mist, her sides heaving. They’d been lucky, so damn lucky. She turned and saw Rift nosing over the dead lion, one large paw swiping at the body.
And yet, they hadn’t been lucky enough.
A dead shifter wasn’t a good thing. It was trouble that could make their situation far more deadly.
And how the hell she was going to explain this to Lennox was beyond her.
She shifted back, her rain-soaked clothes clinging to her skin again, but at least it washed away the blood. Rift shifted next to her, his lion fading into the shape of a man. He crouched next to the body, running a hand through his hair. Beads of rain slid down the hard lines of his face. “Hell.”
They had to call this in. She had to call this in, but then what? Kinsey would be back in a pride that wanted her dead, and Sawyer would be out of a job. She glanced at Rift. And Rift would probably be fined or executed, depending on the Hounds around here, for being an unregistered rogue who had just killed someone.
“We call it in on the road.”
She blinked at him. Lennox would kill her. “And say what? We went in for a piss, got jumped by one lion and killed him, but hey, we couldn’t stay for the police report, we have more trouble bearing down on our asses?”
Rift shook his head. “You got a better plan? Because sticking around for the Hounds to come spells bad in all kinds of ways. At least we’d be calling it in. Or we could just leave it for someone else to find.” That was something she definitely couldn’t do.
Just the thought of some mother and child pulling up and discovering the mutilated body—they didn’t deserve that.
“Fine, you call while I drive.” She turned to head back for the car and froze. Water and blood mixed, running down her arms and over her hands. She could see the cuts over her arms and winced. With a tilt of her head she could see the slice across Rift’s left cheek, the heavy bleeding on his left arm. “Maybe we should get cleaned up first.”
He nodded. “Fetch Kinsey while I make the call, then.”
And later tonight she’d call Lennox and let her know the truth.
Hopefully by then her boss would have a plan, too. Because they sure as hell needed one.
Chapter Six
Rift watched as the Welcome to Colorado sign blazed past them on the highway. The same scenery as the last fifty miles drifted past, blurring into nothing more than a haze. He was dead tired, his eyes drifting shut of their own accord. He hadn’t intended to take them north into Boulder Territory. The Boulder Pride was big. Five or six males, if he remembered correctly. But he hadn’t been paying attention when Sawyer asked him to take the wheel and told him to get on the highway.
Fuck, but now he needed a different direction. Boulder wasn’t the kind of pride he wanted to piss off. And yet that was exactly why he knew they should keep heading toward them. The Cane Creek males wouldn’t exactly relish hunting them on Boulder territory.
It was the closest shot at safety he could give these two.
And, damn him, but that meant he was going to keep going north and hope to sneak right by.
Sawyer yawned and stretched in the back seat, Rona and Kinsey still curled up next to her. Sawyer braced her hands against the ceiling to stretch the kinks out of her back and Rift found himself watching her through the mirror. The way her breast swayed with her movement, the morning sunlight playing in her auburn hair, turning strands to gold.
He swallowed and jerked his attention back to the road.
Stuff his ass in a car with her for much longer and he was going to lose his mind.
“Where are we?” Sawyer leaned against the back of his seat, her voice still husky with sleep. A scratch lined the edge of her jaw.
“Colorado, not quite to Durango yet.”
He watched her stiffen, no doubt doing the same mental rundown he’d just been doing. “Cane Creek won’t look this far north for us, and I doubt Boulder’s got lions, at least not pride males, this far south.”
She barely tilted her head in a nod. He understood the fear.
They’d almost gotten their asses handed to them back there by two males. They were running from Cane Creek’s four, though only three would be actively on their ass. Perching on the lower half of a territory with five was damn near suicidal.
“It’s b
een awhile since we actually stopped. A shower and a bed sound nice.”
“I was waiting until we got closer to the Rio Grande National Forest, probably somewhere around South Fork, before we look for a hotel.”
She shook her head. “We’re safe enough to do it now.”
Rift cut her a sidelong glance. Sawyer lifted her shoulders in a small shrug, but she didn’t look at him. Under her breath she added, “No lion in their right mind is going to cross the Colorado border without permission.”
The note of sarcasm in her voice made him smile.
“Desperation can make a man do crazy things.”
Like stare at a woman when he was supposed to be driving.
He forced his attention back to the road. Still, he couldn’t ignore the heat of her arm against his shoulder as she leaned against his seat and looked out over the highway. Nor could he shut out the rich smell of lioness filling his every breath. She smelled like sunlight, like warm earth, baked under soft morning rays. Fresh.
He gripped the wheel.
Sawyer shifted in her seat. “We can stop at the next exit. I need a shower.”
At this rate, so would he.
“There’s a chance...”
“We’ll be fine.” There was an edge to her voice that made him glance back at her. She gave him a sheepish smile. “I need a shower. And above and beyond anything else,” She finally looked at him this time, meeting his gaze in the mirror, her face deadly serious, “We have got to clean the litter box again. Right now.”
That drew a surprised laugh out of him. True enough. He nudged the window down another notch.
“So pull off at the next exit with a decent motel, big guy. All parties vote you out.”
“All parties?”
“The cat’s about to shit on the floor in my car, and do you want me to wake your daughter?”
His grin only widened, but a wise man knew when to stop arguing.
He just hoped she was right. They couldn’t afford for her to be wrong.
***
Moonlight trickled in past the curtains, lining the edges of shadows with tendrils of silver. Sawyer watched from across the room as Rift slept, listened to the fitful rumbles he made as he tossed and turned, stubble dusting his jaw made him look rough, dangerous. Then again, the man who had tangled with him earlier today would have said he didn’t just look dangerous; he was. Deadly, too.
God, how was she going to explain that one?
Now, on top of everything else, they were leaving a body trail. It wasn’t something Sawyer had ever intended to happen, but if it hadn’t been that rogue dead in the grass, it would have been her. Or Kinsey. Or Rift.
She closed her eyes and counted silently to ten.
They hadn’t had a choice. And if anyone was going to understand that, it would be Lennox. Though she doubted at this point her old boss would relish the mess she’d have to clean up. Slipping out of the room, Sawyer let the cool Colorado air swirl around her as she leaned on the balcony overlooking the parking lot. An occasional car buzzed by on the road, but beyond that the night was quiet. Almost silent.
She turned the phone over in her hand, then finally flipped it open and dialed. How long would it be before Lennox got tired of the midnight calls? How long—
“Sawyer?” Lennox’s voice came over the other line, rough with worry.
“Yeah.”
“When you didn’t answer earlier—” She cut herself off and sighed. “Where are you now?”
“Colorado. At another motel. And I’m sorry it’s so late, it’s hard to get time alone when we’re packed like sardines in my car.” Sawyer ran a hand through her hair. “What did you find out?”
“Nothing on the Cane Creek Pride, they look clean. Hell, cleaner than Boulder. I’ve checked every national Enforcement database I could. If there’s ever been a problem with them it’s never been reported.”
“Shit.”
“Doesn’t mean I don’t believe you.”
“But it’s going to be even harder to keep Kinsey out of their hands.”
“I won’t send a child into a place where you’re certain she’ll wind up dead. We will figure something out.”
“Thank you, Lennox.”
“And as for the rogue, the father? Well, Rift Callahan has an interesting past, though the same could be said for Kanon.” Kanon Reyes, Sawyer’s half-brother, was one of Lennox’s two mates. He had a history of brawling, had attacked a Hound, and had been pegged for murder. Not really reassuring.
Her grip tightened on the rail and she held her breath for a moment before she dared to ask. “What’s he done?”
“Bar fights, pride trespassing, most of what you’d expect from a rogue. He was last known to live in Indiana, and that was twelve years ago. After that he went off the radar. Kind of surprised to hear he moved back to Texas. He has a history with the Cane Creek Pride.”
“Oh?”
“He was reported for trespassing on pridelands four times over a decade ago. My guess is he was sleeping with the pride females and the resident males were getting tired of chasing him off. He left Texas after a nasty car crash and settled in Indiana before he vanished. But the car crash is where it gets interesting.” Papers rustled in the background. “Cane Creek has been run by the Slade males for three generations now, almost as long as the Reyes family has held their pride.”
Sawyer smiled at that. “Four and counting. But only two of the Cane Creek coalition were Slades. I looked into that myself before I went under cover.”
“Mmhmm. Dougal and Tavis. They were Calder Slade’s only two sons. He also had a daughter, Emmalyn Slade. She died in a car crash...while the man driving walked away unharmed.”
“Rift,” his name came out a harsh whisper.
“Yup. And after that, from what I can find, he left town. Then less than a year later, he vanished completely.”
He’d gone into hiding. Sawyer knew most unlisted rogues were that way for a reason. “Did it say what happened in the crash?”
“Emmalyn Slade was heavily drunk. According to Callahan she wouldn’t stop pawing at him, and he was trying to get her home. The roads were slick from the rain, another driver cut them off going around the curb, and he lost control of the car. Spun off into the ditch. The other driver was there to confirm his story.”
But Sawyer had gotten to know Dougal and his other pride males well in the short time she’d been under cover there. They were possessive as hell, and unlikely to tolerate a rogue fooling around with their women and then their sister. Right before she wound up dead.
“If they didn’t want Kinsey dead before—and they did, Lennox—they most certainly do now.”
“My thoughts exactly. And my guess is? Callahan has been in hiding a long time. I could push this through witness protection, but I need time.”
“We’re not there yet.”
Lennox was quiet for a moment. “There’s a safer, closer option, you know. If your family could keep your cover...”
“I don’t want them involved in this.” Her family had been through enough, their name dragged through the mud when a serial killer had preyed on them recently. They didn’t need to hide her and her trouble on top of that.
“They’d want to be if they knew what kind of trouble you were in.” Sawyer started to protest, but Lennox cut her off with a snort and continued. “Boulder Pride was a powerhouse before Torres attacked you and made your lives hell. It’s damn near impenetrable now.”
“Beckett would know to look for me there.”
“I’ve already informed Roy Beckett and the Federal Enforcement branches that you’re back under my command and doing undercover work for me. Now you used the name Sawyer Grant when you went under right?”
She cringed, knowing damn well where Lennox was going with her question. “Yes, but...”
“Then the Cane Creek males won’t even think to look for you in Boulder. That is as safe as you’re going to get, Sawyer. And that little girl deserves it.
Call your father. Before you start to argue, I’m going to bed. That was an order.”
And Lennox hung up before she could even open her mouth to protest.
Sawyer leaned into the rail, her forehead pressed into her hands. She didn’t want to cause her family any more worry. Her father had aged ten years the day she and Gilly had been taken. She didn’t want to add this burden to his shoulders too.
The door squeaked open behind her and Sawyer knew it was Rift.
“For someone who wanted a bed,” he said softly, “you sure have a strange way of using it.”
Her phone still gripped in her hands, she angled her head so she could see his face in the soft light. He gave her a tired, lopsided smile. “You okay?”
There were a thousand replies to that, and only one she could give him. “Yeah,” she breathed out, hating the lie. She wanted to ask him if Emmalyn Slade was why he was hiding. If that was why Jenna had kept Kinsey hidden her whole life.
But those weren’t things she could ask.
Rift’s gaze drifted to the phone in her hands and she watched a frown tug his brows together before he stepped forward. One finger reached out and brushed aside the hair from her cheek. “You don’t look okay.” But instead of pushing, he slid an arm around her waist and drew her to him. “Let’s go back to bed.”
He led her back inside and took her phone gently from her, then laid it on the table between the beds. “Worries can wait until morning,” he said and then drew her into bed next to him and wrapped his arms around her as he pulled her close.
Strength surrounded her, calmed her, and Sawyer pressed her face into his chest. Her fingertips trailed over the hard lines of his body. In his arms, she was almost willing to believe they were safe enough. That they didn’t need to involve her family.